Creating a Team

When a couple get married they become a team.   They are a partnership working together interdependently to achieve a common goal! When children come along they join the team! 

What do teams do? They have meetings, they work on goals, and they become bonded together as they sacrifice for one another and the common good. 

One of the ways to create a strong family team is home duties! 

We found a successful way to do family duties is through yearly assignments. In our family, duties were assigned according to the ages of family members for a whole year! We had one day a week where we cleaned our whole house. 

It really felt like a team on Friday afternoons after school when the children got going on their duties. We had some favorite songs we would play and something fun to look forward to. We pushed through the tears and moaning of the elementary school-aged children, and by the time they were teens they knew how to knock out a bathroom or sweep and mop floors without much guidance. There was duty swapping and negotiating when their schedules filled up, but what a relief to have help! 

A couple of other things I learned along the way that might help are:

Children are very capable of doing their own laundry by the time they are ten. It’s not rocket science to sort clothes, choose a wash cycle, fold clothes, and put them away. They may need help remembering to start the washer, to fold, and to put away, but it can be a good time if you offer to help and praise and appreciate all their efforts. 

Saturdays are a great day to do big projects together. We would do one a month. If it’s window day everyone works on cleaning windows and blinds for an hour or two. If it’s yard day everyone is outside pulling weeds, mowing, and planting. If it’s kitchen day everyone takes a cupboard to wipe out, dejunk, and organize, or cupboards to wipe down. Call it something fun, set out all the equipment, give a demo, and plan on a treat when the work is done! 

Creating a team is a tough job, there is no doubt about it, but the values you're working on will last a lifetime!