Teach Children to Work
This week, I’m focusing on paying it forward to the next generation. Today, we look at teaching children to work. It is obviously a godly concept that people work. It started with Adam who was tasked with tending the garden and naming the animals. Work is good. It’s what you do to bring about a result or reward.
Dictionary.com defines work as:
- exertion or effort directed to produce or accomplish something; labor; toil.
- productive or operative activity.
- employment as in some form of industry, especially as a means of earning one’s livelihood…
Working is Biblical
The passage that immediately came to mind when I thought about children working was Proverbs 6; “Go to the ant…” It does such a great job painting a picture that we can see in our mind’s eye. Maybe your child will enjoy the story when you sit down with them.
Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long will thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man (Proverbs 6:6-11).
This passage applies to adults and children, alike. We can teach our children that to be busy about accomplishing something to an end (hopefully a positive end), is good. I think that’s what happening when parents give their children allowance based off of them competing their chores (work) and withholding or reducing their allowance when their children don’t do them or don’t them in the way prescribed. It’s like a training ground that says when we go to work, we get paid to do a job and there are consequences when we don’t.
Proverbs 6 says the ant has no guide and overseer and just goes about instinctively working. You may have children like that or know children like that. I remember when I worked in
childcare, children who when I wiped the table, they wanted to wipe the table. When I swept up, they wanted to sweep. When I washed dishes, they wanted to wash dishes. Sometimes, at two years old, they would try to beat me to doing it. I recognize there could have been other motivators, but I hope they were being trained to work. Granted, it wasn’t an intentional lesson, but I hope it reinforced the idea of leading by example. I work, you work.
Motivation to Work
Then, there are children that don’t like to do chores; no matter how fun you make chores look; no matter what reward you offer in exchange.
“Stop being lazy” probably motivates almost no one.
Some children instinctively like to be busy; like for love of the sport.
Some children like to help; like the pride of contributing.
Some children are motivated by rewards; like getting allowance for doing their chores.
Some children are motivated by guilt; like showing the negative repercussions of not doing their part.
Some children are motivated by reasoning; like showing how if they give/do, they receive/get and avoid this or that. It just makes sense.
Some children are motivated by necessity; like if they don’t give/do, they won’t receive/get.
You may have to try different things. Children are not all alike and won’t respond to the same motivators. It’s something you may have to come back to time after time. But it’s worth the “work” to communicate this lesson. If we can teach the value of working, while they are young, it will serve them all their lives.
Conclusion
Sadly, I have worked with many young adults who lost their job because they didn’t come to work as scheduled and others who lost their jobs because they didn’t work when at work. I’ve talked to many dozens of young adults who say they can’t work. I wonder if some of these cases are just a matter of having not learned to work. We can all contribute something to the lives of others; contribute to society. We can and we must. Let’s serve our children by training them up in the way they should go. Prayerfully, when they are older, it will not depart from them.
