Good Help Is...

hard to train! Kara has been working on our little helpers for a few years now trying to teach them to be responsible for their own messes and to help out with family chores. It would be much easier to do the work ourselves, but good parents do the harder task of training their children.

Lincoln and Evan love to go outside, so when the older children go out, they have to take the little ones with them. Viva enjoys being with Lincoln and she tries to be a good sport with Evan. Bentley and Jake don't want to watch their younger brothers, but we insist. When Evan is outside, we have to do regular checks to see who is in charge of watching him and how close he is to his mentor. One afternoon he scored a moose nugget. He didn't eat it, he threw it. That's good.

Despite Viva's much superior record with her younger siblings, she does occasionally let us down. One evening Kara asked her to get the little boys pajamas and then to put Lincoln in his pajamas. Lincoln and she were not working well together. He came over and asked me to help him. He didn't want Viva's help. He was almost completely dressed. His pajama bottoms were on and his top was around his neck. He just needed to get his arms in the sleeves.

I reached over to adjust the top and when I touched it it was quite damp. I was puzzled because he hadn't been drinking while getting dressed in his pajamas, so why was the top so damp? I quizzed Viva on it and she said they weren't quite dry when she got them out of the machine. Further quizzing revealed that it wasn't the dryer she took the pajamas out of, but the washer! I checked and Lincoln's pajama bottoms were likewise damp. 

It's hard work training good help!