To "help" or not

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Do your kids ever want to help?

And you're thinking, "That's great, but I don't know what I'm going to have you do." Or you're thinking, "Yeah, you can help me. Go play and let me just get this task done on my own."

This is how my brain works anyway. I know it would be better to get the kids involved, but I know it will take longer, there may be fighting or crying, and there will probably be more to clean up in the end. Yesterday when asked the question, "Can I help?" I chose to respond with, "Just go play and Dad will take care of making dinner." But, what if I instead used a little more brain power and tried to think of how do I involve my kids in what I'm doing? Even if it was small. Instead of just thinking about my comfort and control of the situation thinking about how I can help them learn something new.

It's a daily struggle with little kids. They usually want to help when you don't want them to and then they won't help out when you need them to.

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