Saturday, August 25, 2012

A Bit More Independent..

So now that the laundry from two weeks at camp is pretty much behind me, there is something I am going to do. Teach my son to do laundry.

He already knows a little about it, but I want to make him thoroughly competent with it this year.

Here's why:

At CYC, I spent an afternoon in the laundromat. With a two-week program, it's just something you have to do. Counselors were taking campers to various laundry facilities that day and some of them ended up in the same one as me.

"What cycle should I use?"
"How many minutes should I set this for?"
"Do I need to use a dryer sheet?"

Now, it's not a problem that kids are asking questions, whether of me, their counselors or any other leaders. That's what we are there for. Part of going to camp is learning to be a bit more independent and this is one way to do it.

But, it's also part of my role as a parent to prepare my child for independence and making sure he can do tasks is part of that. This year, it will be laundry because that came on my radar screening. He can already do some cooking and cleaning. I'm going to just try to keep expanding his repetoire.


How are you getting your children ready for independence?

2 comments:

  1. My kids are almost all grown now. My youngest is 15. But, my kids all started doing their own laundry when they were around 10 years old. When they went to college or got their first apartments, sometimes well meaning women tried to help them with their laundry and they always got offended, lol. They didn't need help with their laundry!

    I don't know what I did to make them independent, really, but I know that none of them had any trouble once they moved out. I really worked myself out of a job!

    Candi

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  2. That's awesome. It's what I want to do. At least, in theory.

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