Learning to Work

I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I have been thinking about how I grew up and learned to work and how I am teaching my kids to work. My parents have a large garden not a small backyard garden a large garden. It produces a large amount of food. We have always had a large garden. The year I was born my grandfather passed away on my fathers side. As a result my dad inherited alot of responsibility. My grandma has a large lot and always grew a huge garden. We lived only one mile away and my dad took care of the garden with her. As I look back now I think it was his way of checking on my grandma and always being there for her. A garden takes a lot of time. Several nights a week we went to grandmas, and as a child we knew that going to grandmas meant we were going to be put to work. I remember clearing the garden of rocks. I had to fill many five gallon buckets of rocks before we would leave that night. I was younger than Lexie is now. I used to plant the seeds and drag the hose to water our newly planted seeds. I learned to weed and to pick the beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, dig potatoes, etc. I would spend hours with my grandma snapping beans as my dad finished his work. As a result of my childhood somehow in the middle of it all I learned to work and I learned a lot about service. During all this work we had a lot of fun. We would play in the irrigation water and ditches for hours. We spent a lot of time as a family. I had a special relationship with my grandma that the other cousins or even my brothers did not have.

Anyway that was a long introduction but this past weekend my mom invited me to come down and I could have the next picking of beans, because she had already canned 75 pints this year alone. I was excited to show my kids a taste of how I grew up and let them experience for the first time how to pick, and snap beans. I took Zach and Lexie with me, Carson had his first football game on Saturday morning so I left him with Kevin. Zach, Lexie, and I along with grandma and grandpa picked the beans the minute we arrived on Friday night before it was dark. The beans had really slowed down due to the cooler weather. I was glad that it was not a ton, because I really wanted Zach and Lexie to stay interested and finish picking all the beans. They did such a good job. We picked and snapped enough beans to fill nine pints. My mom and I stayed up and canned the beans that night.

The next day my mom and I canned 12 pints of tomatoes for me and 14 quarts of tomatoes for her all from her garden. I grew up canning but now as an adult never felt confident to do it on my own. I shared this with my mom and she was explaining and teaching me through the whole process.

Zach spent hours shooting a bb gun. Grandpa always the worker stained their log home and was covering it with a clear coat. Grandpa still found time to take the kids on a long ride on the four wheeler up the canyon. I love my parents and I love that I learned to work to really work, and the accomplishment I feel from a job well done. Among the work this weekend at my parents we all had a great time.

Now as a parent I worry that I don't have kids who will grow up to be adults who know how to work. I have a son that holds a wash cloth between one finger and his thumb to do the dishes. How did this happen? I give my kids chores, they clean their own rooms, I don't even give allowance, I expect it. They can't play with others until their jobs are done. Yet, I don't feel like they get it. I realized lately that I need to raise the bar and expectation level. I know my kids are able to work, and to do a good job, not just the bare minimum to get mom off their back.

I did not realize that a garden helped instill all these habits in me. I know my kids are missing out. I do not know all the answers, but things are going to change around here. I owe this to my kids and to future employers to raise kids that know how to work. I also think service is a huge thing that I need to instill in my children to see a need and not have to be asked to serve but want to serve. I will keep you posted on our changes and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.