Managing Your Child's Day

We've all been there: children are running through the house fighting, screaming, making chaos as they go. Everything is loud and a mess and mommy is ready to pull her hair out because she cannot bring order to her household.

Or the opposite end: the child does not know what to do with himself unless he has a television, videos and video games. You watch him sitting there hour after hour; on the one hand glad he's being quiet, on the other hand knowing that this can't good for him.

You know there has got to be a better way...

And there can be, but it takes a bit of work on your part. You must manage, or order, the child's life.

It's part of child training, teaching your children how to occupy their time. People in the old days just seemed to know how to do it; in fact, they didn't really have a choice. The children had to pitch in and help in order for the family to survive. We live a much softer life now, and it's harder to justify making the children work, and in fact, most of the time it's easier to just do it ourselves.

So how can you order a child's life? By making the child responsible for doing part of the work that makes the home run. The Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 3:10: "if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either." With that in mind, set your child to work.

Upon rising their bedroom is a good place to start. Teach the child to make their bed and tidy their room. Have them get dressed, and eat breakfast, then set them to doing chores.

Children as young as five and six can began to help wash the dishes, and soon will be able to do them alone. If you have several children, assign different parts to do, rather than just telling them to do the dishes. In that way, you will know if someone is slacking off and not doing their share. One can clear and wipe the table and cabinets, while another washes the dishes.

After dishes are done, everyone can help straighten the family room.

A child can bring the dirty clothes from the hamper in the bathroom to the laundry room. Dilute a bottle of spray cleaner down to almost all water and let a young child "wash" down the bathroom tile.

Even very young children can carry their clean clothes to their room and put them away.

Feeding the family pets is always a good job for children.

A child can go from room to room and empty the trash cans.

Very young children can be given a washcloth and taught to wipe down the kitchen chairs.

Children around the age of six love to mop, after you sweep.

Keep the children busy most of the morning. Tell them often about what a great help they are, and how you hardly know how you could get it all done without them. Soon, they will be good enough at helping that you should all be able to get the housework done before noon. The rest of the morning can be for schooling if you are a homeschool family. Eat lunch, and give your children free time for a while. Then in the late afternoon, gather them together again and assign chores to tidy up the house before the evening meal.

You will all be happier if the children are not just left to themselves. They will feel pride that they are part of what makes the family work, your house will be cleaner, and you will soon find that you have more free time once they can do their work well. In time, you won't have to say much, the children will just pitch in when something needs to be done, because they have been trained to work.