The chore conundrum in my house

(Pixabay image)

My daughter wants to be helpful around the house. I, however, want to get chores done as quickly as possible.

On Sunday, for instance, I chopped carrots at the kitchen counter for a batch of stew while my daughter stood there watching, asking if there was something she could do to help.

"Not now," I said. "Maybe when you're older."

But she could've helped. She could've added the broth, stirred the stew, washed the dishes I used for preparation, and a handful of other things.

Instead, I did it all because it's easier than showing her the way to do them.

Do all moms feel this way? If my own mom did, she never let it stop her from putting me and my siblings to work. My older sister and I were able to cook dinner for the whole family by the time we were 10 years old, so surely my mom had us helping out in the kitchen in some capacity by the time we were 7.

One of my friends who has a daughter a few years older than I am once told me she did everything around the house when her children were growing up. She didn't realize she had done them a disservice until her daughter, away at college, ruined her vacuum cleaner by trying to vacuum up cat poop.

"She just didn't know any better," my friend said. But her daughter, who has five or six children of her own, learned what to do and became adept at household chores, my friend added.

That tells me that it's not the end of the world if I don't let go and shift some responsibility to my daughter. But I still think I need to learn to let her help. Like every other kid in the world, she wants to feel useful. I think it's time I let her.