Whenever I talk about training my kids around the home – the chores, the skills etc – people always come up with this comment.  “Yep, I need to start training my kids for independence, the time is coming…” etc etc.  My heart cringes.  That is not my plan at all.

My plan is to give my children independent skills in order to bless others.

Who are the “others”?   First of all, it is us as a family.  Each skill can bless someone in this house.  Then there are all the people that they know – young, old, healthy, sick, happy, sad, able, and unable; there are plenty of people out there to be blessed.

Independence doesn’t come into it!  If I were to mention that “Independence” isn’t my goal, people would cry, “You’ve got to let them go sometime how will they survive!”.  Once again the point is being missed.  I am teaching my children the same skills – just a different goal.

The night Josh offered to cook dinner because he could see us ladies were busy enjoying ourselves with our new skill of beading – this wasn’t an independent skill – this was blessing his family and friends.

The day Jess cleaned out the fridge before we went shopping wasn’t an independent skill – this was helping the family with their day.

The morning Nomi did the dishes and had to come back and check that the benches were cleaned off too  – this isn’t an independent skill – this is training for one day blessing someone else’s kitchen and seeing the little things that needed to be done.

The skills are the skills they need for independence – cooking, cleaning, mending, caring for little people, resourcefulness, organization, thriftiness, initiative – but the reason that drives me to teach and them to learn is Other people.