My Crazy Kids Ask To Do Chores...

Yes, I feel like this sounds like some crazy gimmick for a new product that will change your life forever!
(Insert cheesey salesman voice in there)
But no, it's not.
My kids actually enjoy doing mundane things like washing, dishes, scrubbing the shower, and my daughter even volunteers her toilet scrubbing services to her preschool at the end of the day.
Crazy, right!

They argue over who gets to bring the empty bins in...

 My girl loves to help cook dinner...

And wash the dirty dishes...

They even love helping grandma shovelling cow manure!

My boy likes the help me scrub the showers, and both kids know that their dirty dishes go in the kitchen, rubbish straight in the bin and dirty clothes into the washing machine or basket.
I don't even really have to ask them anymore, they just do it.

This isn't just a big brag post.... I swear!
Yeah sure, every mother wants to say how awesome her kids are, but I think it's really important that my kids learn to clean up after themselves, to learn how to keep a clean house and as they get older to cook and clean. 
My mother insisted that my brother & I learn how to cook proper food and were self sufficient when it came to housework and laundry. I am so grateful for that! I still see people who are in their late 20s (and older) living at home with their mother still doing their washing and cooking every meal.... So wrong!!

I don't wait until the kids are in bed to clean up the house. 
For a few reasons:

1: I want them to see me doing it. 

If they don't see it getting done then how will they comprehend that a person has to do every little thing they take for granted?

2. When they are in bed it's MY time. 

I need to unwind, relax, exercise and spend precious time with my man. My kids had all of me all day, now it's my turn, not the housework.

3. If I leave it, the workload increases!

If I leave something to do later, it just seems to pile up so fast into a mammoth cleaning effort! And that is the last thing I want to do right before bed. It won't relax me, and I won't sleep well at all.

Sometimes I feel like I may be too harsh on them, but other times I am so proud to hear them offer to help, insist on taking over and want to be involved. 

Plus I am secretly hoping that they will keep up these tidy habits well into teenagehood to spare me the trauma of stinky messy bedrooms! I can dream, right?