Work Hard, Play Hard

I want our children to grow up knowing what it means to work hard. (I also want them to know how to have fun too, of course.) Yesterday, my 4 year old son made my day.

He was playing with Hannah in the living room, and he came to the kitchen where I was cleaning up after lunch. Here is our conversation:

Caleb: Mommy, you work all day just like Daddy works all day.

Me: Oh really? What kind of work do I do?

Caleb: You clean up and wash things.

For a stay at home mom, that was such a blessing to hear. A lot of times people hear about moms who stay at home and think they are lucky because they don't have to go to work. I take my job at home seriously though and believe I should work as hard at home as I expect my husband to at his job. I feel like it is a huge, sometimes overwhelming, responsibility (just like many other jobs) to teach children responsibility encompassed in love, be a constant support for my husband, keep the house in order, manage a budget, and complete the many other tasks that pop up with all of the other things outside of the home that go on too.

With all of the planning that I have done the last 3 months, I have felt like I have let the house slip a bit. And when I look around the rooms, I feel like I am not doing my work. (Although if I peek at our housing file folder I can see where all my time has gone!) So when my 4 year old acknowledged out of the blue that he thinks I work hard, it made my day!