Good morning. I just got home from working my shift at the fitness center and I am already tired for the day. :) Maybe a cup of coffee and some fresh air will do the trick.
I wanted to address work ethic this morning.
While growing up I lived on a little ranch, homestead type place. We had horses, cows, pigs, turkeys, and a very large garden. Until I was ten my mom cooked on a wood cook stove and she canned everything extra from the garden for winter. We had a coal furnace, and I remember how nasty it was to blow my nose after shoveling coal into the chute for my family.
Mornings began with chores. We had to feed the animals, break the ice in the troughs, and then get breakfast going all before the school bus came at 7:15.
I am not saying this so that you will feel sympathy for me, on the contrary. I would not give up that childhood for a thousand luxuries.
I loved every moment of it. We kids learned to work for what we had and we learned that you will reap the benefits of hard work in days to come. Calluses were cool, even better if they broke and you could show your brothers how tough you were.
It was fun to pick potato bugs in the summer and then sneak into the sweet peas for a taste. It was fun to feed and brush the horses out in cool mornings or after a long ride in the hills.
Some where, some time we have trained people to believe that work can't be fun and everything should come easy. People walk around not knowing what to do next unless they are told and if something upsets their harmonious little worlds they cry for revolution and begin to complain and picket the lines.
My goal is to show my children through the life we have chosen that rewards come from doing the right thing, honesty, perseverance, and looking ahead while enjoying today. I want them to know that a tomato comes from a plant not a store. I want them to know that handouts create dependency and that independence, imagination, and hard work are not bad.
Oh boy, I could say more....
I heard Suze Orman speak about children and training a sense of entitlement in them by the foolish notion of giving them an "allowance".
ReplyDeleteThere is no allowance in the grown-up world, unless it might be welfare. We are to provide love, food, shelter, safety to our children. We owe them that much for bringing them into the world. In return for the above they are to reciprocate with certain chores that contribute to everyone living together having food, shelter, safety, and love. Then there should be a list of extra work that they could do to earn money. Each chore would have a monetary compensation commensurate with its difficulty, time, and importance. Children however are not permitted to start at the top. They have to work their way up to the top paying chores by doing the ones down the list first; kind of like life!! Work is satisfying; work together is what team feels like. It is important in learning how to live in community; less focus on self more focus on others!! I could say more too!
I just read a similar article from Dave Ramsey. I will check out Suze Orman as well. :) It is good to start our children out with reality and not spring it on them later in life.
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