Love is not how I feel, it's what I do. I choose to love those who are mine and those who are strangers by doing things for them. Except I'm not very good at doing things for people. My wife is, though. 'Cause she has skills. How can you do stuff for people if you don't have skills?
She's trained my eight-year-old girl and six-year-old boy to bake the household's bread. Well, she's trained the girl, and my daughter supervises my son's work. They each make a loaf a day, Monday through Thursday. My daughter has been performing this chore for several weeks now, and my son has recently joined in. And make no mistake, this is a chore for them. They both enjoy it...a little. You know the feeling.
So now two of my kids know how to bake. And now they have one more way of expressing love for me. They're heading down with mom to grandma and grandpa's in Florida one week before I do. My wife is making sure I'm going to be well-stocked with convenient food, so she has them each baking double every day this week. So my kids are preparing all this extra food for me...and they even decided to decorate some of the loaves with hearts (following my daughter's initiative the other day, when she figured out on her own how to decorate a loaf with a bow).
Teaching your kids to work isn't just about all your piously gratifying Puritan virtues, although those are well and good. Teaching your kids to work is making them able to love.
http://www.facebook.com/v/10150519821934951
She's trained my eight-year-old girl and six-year-old boy to bake the household's bread. Well, she's trained the girl, and my daughter supervises my son's work. They each make a loaf a day, Monday through Thursday. My daughter has been performing this chore for several weeks now, and my son has recently joined in. And make no mistake, this is a chore for them. They both enjoy it...a little. You know the feeling.
So now two of my kids know how to bake. And now they have one more way of expressing love for me. They're heading down with mom to grandma and grandpa's in Florida one week before I do. My wife is making sure I'm going to be well-stocked with convenient food, so she has them each baking double every day this week. So my kids are preparing all this extra food for me...and they even decided to decorate some of the loaves with hearts (following my daughter's initiative the other day, when she figured out on her own how to decorate a loaf with a bow).
Teaching your kids to work isn't just about all your piously gratifying Puritan virtues, although those are well and good. Teaching your kids to work is making them able to love.
http://www.facebook.com/v/10150519821934951
Love this! What a wonderful way for them to contribute to the house and to nurture you. Go Kim!!!
ReplyDeleteAlso, speaks so well for the kids that even though they're not super passionate about the baking, they're really making it their own and getting creative with it. Those loaves are beautiful :)