by CoombeMill
5 March 2012 08:56
Parental agreement
It has always been something that Nick and I have been totally in agreement over. Pocket money is not for free to our children, it is earned. Weather it is washing the car or feeding the animals, showing in the guests or stripping the beds, there are plenty of jobs here with a family business and increasingly as our children grow up, we expect them to help out and encourage this in every way. http://www.coombemill.com/family-team
Making it easy
Help is always more forthcoming when it a job that interests them! Let's face it, as jobs go, stripping beds in 19 properties is a chore that has to be done while roaring round the farm on a quad bike is somewhat more appealing to my boys! Farmer Nick is always keen to encourage them by making their chores more fun; he is a tools and gadgets boy himself! His latest lash up is a homemade trailer for the quad to assist in carrying everything from hay for the animals to logs for the log stores. The boys are only too keen to help out now!
Things don't always go to plan!
Felix and Theo were really working well together at the weekend. Inspired by Daddy's trailer they even forgot to ask how much they would earn, instead happily loading logs and distributing them round the properties!
Having finished the logs they set off for a fun ride on the farm. No one is prepared to admit how this happened!
Sheepishly Theo came to ask for help; thankfully he has a very practical Daddy who was able to save the day:
A helping hand?
Would it have been quicker to have done the logs ourselves? Most definitely, however that is not the point. Children have so much to learn: the value of money, that dull jobs need doing as well as exciting ones, that machinery if mishandled can be dangerous and lapses in concentration has consequences! I would rather they learned those lessons here with us than on their own when they are grown up, so Nick and I will continue to invest time and money into encouraging their young help.
Not deterred here they are back out on the farm the following day moving hay and animals with Daddy.
What do you expect from your children?
Are we on our own in our thinking? How far do you go in asking or paying your children to help? Do you allow them to help with difficult or potentially dangerous things too? It is a difficult one to get right as a parent, but we all do our best to prepare our children for adulthood as best we can.