Every parent knows it’s almost impossible to clean with 20 million kids (okay, only 3 but after 2, who’s counting?) running around, but since you aren’t going to get any down time with the kids, you might as well kill a couple of birds, right? Well – as I begin cleaning and getting more and more frustrated, I pause for a minute to ask myself where is the anger coming from? I have the answer right in front of me lying in a big pile of chairs, blankets and pillows in the middle of the floor (a.k.a. the club house). As I maneuver around them sweeping, dusting and feeling like a slave at this point, it dawns on me…delegate woman!

My oldest is soon to be eleven and my twins are soon to be 5. While I have the eleven year old do a few things here and there, because he only comes every other week, I don’t put much on him. However, what’s really in his best interest…spending more time in front of the television or claiming that he’s bored, or giving him a scrub brush and some cleaning solution? When I hand it all to him, he says he feels like a janitor. Doesn’t this tell you he’s lacking the reality check that he needs?

My youngest son is a natural go getter (a.k.a. Mr. Independent). He’s the one that tells you, “no I can do it” when you want to help or whatever it is that you are doing, he wants to do. So of course as the oldest gets his turn with cleaning fun, he’s jumping up and down waiting for his shining moment. Sure enough, he totally impresses me with his cleaning the steps ability. My daughter is a little like me on the lazy end of things, but eventually she catches on does a tad bit of the vacuuming. At least with all the noise coming from the vacuum cleaner, it sounds like she’s hard at work.

Often we figure it’s harder to teach and go behind our kids than it is to just do it ourselves. But more often it’s harder and less rewarding to do it all ourselves.