The Tide is Turning, {Get It? Tide?}

Lately, at bedtime, Thomas has been asking me to make up random lists of events to place into sequential order. I've made him one on making cookies, playing baseball, making a sandwich, and doing laundry. I jumble all of the steps and he rewrites them in the right order.

He thinks this is a game and it really is a skill he should know probably for something like the TCAP or writing proficiency. What can I say, Ryan and I are raising a family of nerds, just like us.  Anyhoo, after he finished the one on laundry, I got to thinking that Thomas is old and tall enough to probably at least try to do his own laundry. Hmmm.

Please note that I am not exploiting him.  

Me doing his laundry for him has no bearing on how much I love him. 

I help him find the confidence in doing a job well done, himself, because I love him. 

He was already bringing his dirty laundry to the machines and putting away his clean laundry.  I thought it might be time to introduce the young lad to the other steps. 

First I told him and showed him how to do each phase.

Then I let him do it as I walked him through it.

Then HE did it himself. 

Thomas knows how to start the washer, add in the detergent and fabric softener, untangle and turn his clothes right side out, put them all in, shut the lid to the washer. Move the finished, wet laundry to the dryer, start the dryer. Remove his clothes from the dryer, sort them, fold them, return them to the proper drawers.

Little Gus is so happy and proud of himself for knowing how to complete this entire chore. It makes me so happy to see him so happy. And (although I am sure I'll still be helping to oversee the process) it makes me happy to have some help in this department.

He's got The Gap Fold down.  Just like his mama.

This is revolutionary to me. 

Ryan said by the end of the week I'll probably have Thomas packing his own lunch.  Nah. I'll wait until he's at least in 2nd grade for that.  I am so thankful that I married a man whose mother taught him how to fend for himself and who pitches in to help with housework. I hope that I, too, am raising an independent son for a {future} daughter-in-law who will one day appreciate the gesture. 

What are your thoughts on teaching kids to help out with their own chores as their ages permit? 

Do you remember feeling a sense of confidence when you were younger getting to do something on your own? 

The way I see it, in another three or four years, these kids are going to be running this household.  

{I'm joking.}