Meal prep especially dinner is always a “hot spot” where I was constantly handing over devices and tablets so as to “get dinner done.” After all, we had made it to this part of the day right? After I read the book : Hunt, Gather Parent: What ancient cultures can teach us about the lost art of raising , happy, helpful little humans, I totally had a mindshift around how I approached housework, meal prep and just having little people around. In the book she talks about how it is so vital we utilize the power of “toddlers inc.” That is the desire that kids have especially when young to “always help.” Everything is so new to them. As adults we have put spaghetti in a pot of boiling water countless times – but to them it is all a new experience worthy of exploring. We have sifted flour over and over again during our baking so much so that it is such a mundane task we do not think twice about it. Do not get me wrong, I do understand, how messy, slow and sometimes anxiety inducing it gets having them around fire, knives and hot pots; but trust me the more they are exposed to the kitchen environment the easier it gets for them to know their limits and boundaries.
What the author makes clear in the book Hunt, Gather Parent, is that when kids start helping early in housework, they view it more as a “way of life rather than “a chore that needs to get done / will earn me more screentime /or I need to do this to get that,” etc etc.” We take out the trash because we take out the trash around here – not because we will earn a penny for it – not to say it is bad to pay for work done – but if we make payment the central theme – they reach a point (and age) where they would rather go find work at McDonalds than earn our little pennies.. Intrinsic motivation outlives extrinsic motivation. It is that belief that makes one do something not because of praise / external stimuli but rather the idea that I am responsible for the outcomes of my actions and no one is coming to save me except myself. So next time it is so tempting to hand over devices, hand over the rice and have the little one soak it for you.