There’s work to be done when you raise a family! It is possible, however, to turn time spent in routine chores into time well invested in helping a child practice skills or building memories. Have you tried the “Mary Poppins’ Method”? I don’t think a spoonful of sugar is very healthy for making the medicine go down, but the concept sure works to transform chores into delightful time spent together. Mom’s attitude makes all the difference!
Kitchen work is a natural for the “Mary Poppins’ Method”. My kids and I have cooked together from scratch since they were small. With a big family, there was always bread to bake, meals to make, and lots of cleanup to accomplish and dishes to wash. It could be miserable, and at times I lost my bearings and it was miserable! But when I kept a firm hold of Mary’s sound philosophy, it was actually great fun! In the kitchen, we ended up turning everything into a song, and giggling way too much. The cooking all gets done but the work is hardly noticed. We even made up a song about our songs, called “We Make a Song of All Things”!
Races are an exciting way to make a tedious task zip by. All it takes is Mom to call out, “I’ll bet I can weed my row faster than you can!” and the race is on! It doesn’t hurt for Mother to good-naturedly take a tiny break so the little ones can catch up and barely win!
We get to choose. We can drudge through the tasks of taking care of a family, or we can add “an element of fun” to the work that must be done. Be sure that our children will copy us!
Be happy!
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