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As parents, we are always trying to find ways to give our kids appropriate responsibility to help them learn important life lessons.
Raising CEO Kids founder Sarah Cook found a great venue for these lessons in her home: the kitchen!
After a family meeting, the team decided to implement several new practices that help save Cook and her husband a lot of time while teaching her children practical lessons for adulthood.
It was decided that the 3 children, who are 14, 11 and 7, would help by doing their own laundry (one load twice a week), cleaning the kitchen (sweeping/wiping counters) twice a week, and cooking dinner 2 times per week. While she said these activities don’t always work perfectly every time, it is definitely having a great effect on everyone in the family.
“The children know that if they want certain privileges at home they get their tasks done,” Cook wrote in a recent blog post.
The good things that have come from these new tasks:
- The kids are doing great with the laundry – she says so far the only casualty is a pair of pantyhose that met its match with a Velcro strip.
- The family has dinner together most evenings and guards that time to be together.
- Her daughter has gotten so good at cooking she wrote her own cookbook and the family prefers her cooking to anyone else’s. (By the way, she’s 11! That’s not her pictured above)
Along with these, her kids are also learning these life lessons:
- Time Management – if the family wants to eat at 5:00, starting the meal prep at 4:55 is not going to make that happen. The kids are learning how to figure out when things need to get started, what ingredients they need (or make do with what’s in the house), and what they can make with these ingredients. Cook’s policy is she does not drive to the store at the last minute. I’m personally still trying to learn how to make my meals come out at the right time, so the fact they are starting early is fabulous!
- Customer Service – when things go wrong, the children know they have to make it right. Cook says it can range from cleaning up burnt food to writing a letter of apology if things get a little “heated” while cooking, or buying Mom some new hose. This understanding of cause and effect in what you do is a truly valuable lesson.
- Communication and Leadership – working as a team requires good communication skills to get the tasks done right and leadership skills to get them implemented. This teamwork and leadership will build confidence and help them in understanding group dynamics at an early age.
Here is an awesome link Cook had in her blog post that has a ton of wonderful tips for getting kids involved in the kitchen from Better Kid Care.
Please check out Cook’s website (www.raisingCEOkids.com) for a TON of inspirational ideas for parents and children about business, finances, being an entrepreneur and much more.
