I have a sidekick in Alice. She wants to do everything I'm doing: making smoothies, folding laundry (honey, don't laugh), typing on the computer, talking on the phone, wiping down the counters, locking the door, getting something out of the car in the garage...etc. So it's not like she just wants to be there, by me. She wants to do it INSTEAD of me doing it and usually, "my my own self". What does this look like? 
In the case of locking the door. We have a chain lock on the upper part of the door, so I have to hold her by the waist, above my head while she locks the door.
In the case of getting something out of the car. She has to open the door herself, retrieve the item and give it to me.
In the case of unloading the dishwasher the other day, it was lifting her up with each individual dish so she could maybe put it in the right place. This was not working. I wanted to be DONE. So...I thought, I'll teach her how to unload the silverware and set her up with a chair and she can do that by herself. Of course she'll insist that I watch her idly, but I'll put my foot down.
Anyway, she really had a hay day! It was worth it. At least she let me do my job in a few minutes and it was a quick fix to correct her effort once Chris walked through the door and distracted her.
5 comments:
What a fun age, even when it is a lot for you as mom. That is a great idea to have her do the silverware (minus the steak knives of course) - I will have to do that more with Abram. I think that is probably a great sensory activity and nothing a quick reorganization job you can do after she is done.
That's so funny because I've been dealing with the same thing coming from David. For unloading I take out the knives and then let him do the rest. He is shorter than the dwarer(sp?) they go in so he just lifts them over his head and throws them in and I fix it after. I try to remember to enjoy the process and not so much just getting it done. It is hard sometimes though!
Nathan LOVES unloading the dishwasher... the other day he was totally upset and would not be consoled. I was out of ideas so I suggested that he help me with the dishwasher. He quickly stopped crying/whining/stomping and came over and helped me, saying "this one" with each thing that he handed me.
It can certainly be frustrating at times though to work at their pace and disorder.
Alice is looking so grown up and her hair is cute.
I love this post! Kids so want to do their part to "help out" and often times it really means more work for mom! But good for Alice! Really cute picture!
logan's job is to load the washing machine, and he also loves to clean the mirrors...i will take help however, whenever. i am not too picky!
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