Kids and Tools

I think it’s important to teach life skills throughout our children’s lives, even at a young age. We’ve been working on a backyard project (TREE HOUSE!!) and the kids have been helping along side us. It’s been awesome! They feel big and important, they exercise safety and responsibility, and they gain confidence as well as skills. Yesterday Josie and I had a mommy-daughter date to Home Depot. Not manicures, not clothes shopping... but lumber procuring! Nuts and bolts too. She helped me select and count all the bolts, washers, nuts and pieces of wood we needed. She also felt strong enough and big enough to push the lumber cart. I was ready to help her push it, but nah... she did a great job maneuvering it. I was bursting with pride over her “can do, will do” attitude.

Today I felt the same way for each of my boys! This morning, my plan after doing our chores was to get some screws into the tree house platform before the weather became too hot. But when I discovered my washer had bounced away from the wall again, I, like a fool,tried to move it back in place while it held a heavy load of wet towels. That resulted in me throwing out my back. Sweet Perry came to my rescue. He helped me to the family room floor and massaged my back for 30mins. Kaden warmed a rice bag to loosen my muscles. Josie comforted me with her Pink Ellie elephant, and Charlie gave me 100 kisses. Then they helped me get up to do my back exercises and keep my lower back from locking up. They were awesome! I felt bad to keep them from our next plan of going to the splash park. But they were just happy to help me feel better. They wanted to get the tree house done and so did I. But I had to depend on them to do it. I was going to let them help but still do most of the work myself. But I was forced to only be the assistant.

Kaden screwed the platform boards almost entirely on his own. While we worked up top, I gave Perry the task of sawing up the pine tree branches so they’d fit in the fire pit (that rhymed, ha!) He also helped retrieve screws that fell to the ground. Charlie helped hammer and carefully watched Perry saw away, then Charlie would take the cut pieces to the wood pile. Josie entertained Rosie (the Baughman’s puppy whom we are tending this week) and kept her watered and happy. Jo even hooked up the sprinkler to the hose without help. I was sincerely amazed by each of them! 

Not only did they work hard, but they were well behaved all day! They were kind to each other and communicated well to avoid fights. We didn’t have a single fight, tantrum, or whining outburst. It was awesome!

My friend Heidi Robinson recently returned from trek with our stake youth. When she told me all about it she shared one lesson she learned from it with me, and I think it explains perfectly what happened today. She said, “Despite all the rain and pushing the handcarts through mud, the youth were smiling and laughing. It was the adults who thought it was too much for them and considered calling it [off]... it’s not the youth that hold back. It’s us adults who hold them back.” That has stuck with me and it’s governed my thinking with my kids this week. Too often I’ve told them No to something they wanted to try bcuz I didn’t think they were old enough or capable enough at this age.

But more honestly, bcuz I thought I could do it better and it’d be best to just do it myself. That was wrong of me because I had deprived them of important learning opportunities. Look what they accomplished when I let them tackle a big job...they got it done beautifully, we had fun, and they felt good about themselves for having done it. 

I look forward to encouraging them to try bigger and better things. To be bigger and better in every aspect! I am so grateful for a loving Father who’s patient with me as I slowly figure this all out. And I am so grateful that sometimes I do figure it out at the times when it’s needed most. 

I love you Kaden, Perry, Josie and Charlie!! Each of you amaze me and you are capable of even more greatness than you already have!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️