When I was a kid, I worked my butt off doing chores around the house and spent my weekends at a minimum wage job. I cut the grass, shoveled snow, painted the deck, cleaned the pool, you name it, whatever had to be done around the house, it was the job of the kids. My dad only showed us one time how to do something and then we were on our own to figure it out. As a young teenager I knew how to change the oil in the tractor, re-shingle a roof, tile a bathroom and even sheetrock and spackle. To this day, I pride myself on having the skills to being able to do my own painting and take the in-sink-erator apart when something gets clogged and I owe it all to my dad for giving me those skills.
As I got older, I worked the ice cream counter at Howard Johnsons, made pizza at a local italian joint, counted parts for hours on end to keep the inventory up to date at a Harley Davidson dealer and babysat during whatever free time I had left. This was just the way it was, we were taught to learn as much as we could and work hard at it. It was never a question of whether we wanted to do it or not, it was just expected.
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Kids today have some difficulty when it comes to working and performing some manual labor and just down right don’t want to do it. Why is that? Because some parents just don’t push it and continue to give, give and give. My husband and I don’t give our kids whatever they ask for and if they want something really bad, they know they have to do some hard work to earn money to buy it. The daily things like making beds, cleaning rooms, washing dishes and running the vacuum are just givens. Outside of those, they can earn some cash by cutting grass, pulling weeds, cleaning the garage, washing cars and even pulling up the old carpet. They know that if they get $5 to cut the grass, it’s going to take them some time to earn enough to go buy the new Xbox game they want.
I came across an article today written by Amy Langfield, a contributor for TODAY, that speaks exactly to what I’m saying above. Check it out and think about how your kids feel about hard work!
Today’s teens more materialistic, less likely to work hard, study says
MommyWarriors.com
