emotional development | Hear Mum Roar

Finding the source of your child’s anger

Healthy ways children can express their anger

Ground rules for anger

6 Comments -

Ground Rules For Anger

Written on February 13th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Behaviour, February 2011, Parenting

Here’s part four of my anger in children series as promised. I’m enjoying talking with all of you about this. Obviously, all our children get angry at some time. It’s frustrating when they take it too far and can mean a lot of hard work for us. I find laying down some boundaries about anger is a great place to start this work.

The boundaries I’m covering here are the ones we use in our family. They are very basic and common sense. Your family might come up with more, or tweak these ideas:

Anger has been taken too far when:

- Anyone is hurt or at risk of getting hurt. This includes people and animals. It includes but isn’t limited to hitting, kicking, scratching, pinching, hair-pulling or throwing things. I also include screaming that hurts our ears.

- Anyone’s belongings are damaged or at risk of being damaged. Our children are taught to look after their belongings and those of others’.

- If someone does/says hurtful or disrespectful things to others. Apart from nasty words, I also include spitting and rude gestures under this rule. If you’re not saying/doing something as part of a solution, chances are you’re being disrespectful.

- If someone makes us angry, it doesn’t give us the right to break any of the above rules in retaliation. This is an important rule, as often kids feel justified in doing this, for example if a child hits them. They feel it’s more than fair that they hit back. I teach them early on that this isn’t the case. I encourage them to tell a grown up and let them deal with the other person.

- Disrupting public peace. If we’re down the street or in a shop, I make it clear that other people do not want or like to hear you screaming or see you hitting things. It’s expected that they show consideration to everyone.

- We try to end our discussions about anger with this mantra: ‘I expect you to be loving, gentle and kind’. We can do this and still get our anger out in a healthy way. It just takes time and practice.

- If our children break any of the above rules, they are expected to make amends. Or, as we put it more simply with kids, make it right. This could be an apology, a hug or kiss, giving the person a drawing or a written note (if they’re old enough), helping to fix a broken toy and so on.

Do you have some ground rules for your childrens’ anger? What are they?

Other reading:

Finding the source of your child’s anger

Healthy ways children can express their anger

Consequences of anger

2 Comments -

Healthy Ways Children Can Express Their Anger

Written on February 12th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Behaviour, Emotional, February 2011, Parenting, Social

This is part three of my anger in children series. In the first post, I talked about inappropriate ways my son has been expressing his anger. I believe it’s important for anyone, kids included, to have the right to feel anger. To feel it fully and be allowed to express it. This series isn’t about stopping your children from getting angry. Anger is a part of life, and is normal. This series also isn’t about raising perfect little robots who are seen and not heard.

Anger is healthy

I want my children to learn to let their anger out in constructive, healthy ways. I believe this is an unhurried process, which comes with life experience, practice and boundary-setting. Missy 10, for the most part (we’ll say 99% of the time) is great at expressing her anger appropriately. This isn’t because she’s in some way a ‘better’ child than Mr 4. She’s older and has maturity, life experience, practise and years of her parents’ teachings under her belt.

She certainly wasn’t always this way and went through all the same struggles our son is facing now. When things get difficult with my son, I console myself with this reminder! It’s interesting to note that when she was four, she was behaving much the same way, and I was the one who was sick, and ended up in hospital for surgery! So bizarre…

Get it all out

I have a list of ways we can redirect our children’s anger. They allow children to vent without doing harm to anyone.

- Bang a drum, or punch playdough.

- Hit their bed, pillow or something soft that won’t get damaged or hurt the child.

- Talk to someone about their feelings, be it a friend, sibling, parent, pet or counsellor. Whoever the child is comfortable with.

- Sing.

- Ride a bike.

- Jump on a trampoline.

- Throw/hit/kick a ball around.

- Dance.

- Hug it out.

- Have a cry.

- Draw or paint.

- Imaginary play, particularly role-playing games.

- Write (for older children)

- Have a bath, swim or general water play. Water is very soothing to children.

- Any physical play that gets their energy out.

- Pillow fights!

Work with your child’s personality

It’s good to experiment with these ideas until you find what works for your child. My son benefits the most from pillow fights or anything physical. (Since the blow-up he had two days ago, he has been telling me when he feels he needs a pillow fight and I set the timer for 10 minutes. Once we’ve thrashed it out, and the timer goes off, we stop. I had to bring the timer in, otherwise he’d want to keep going all day long!) Other times, depending on the extent of his anger, he will cry, talk or hug.

Although he loves to draw, it’d never work for him during the peak of his anger. However, it does help him to draw when he’s calm, as he sometimes will reflect on his past feelings, talk about them and make sense of them. I’m sure there are many more wonderful ideas, so if you have any to share, I’d love to hear them.

Other reading:

Finding the source of your child’s anger

Ground rules for anger

Consequences of anger

Helping kids to make choices

4 Comments -

Learning to Use Buttons

Written on February 12th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Cognitive, Emotional, February 2011, Fine motor, Preschool aged, Social

Mr 4′s been practicing opening and closing the buttons on his shirt, lately. This is an exciting time for me, as it shows a willingness to learn some self-help skills. Every new skill brings him and I more autonomy. It’s also an exciting stage for Mr 4, as he gains self confidence at being able to do things for himself.

Lately, he’s been regressing in his behaviour due to stresses and changes in his family. A major way this manifested itself was his unwillingness to dress himself anymore. Yes, he’s perfectly capable. I’m hoping that learning this new skill signals a move away from his regression.

Learning to fasten and unfasten buttons involves a lot of problem-solving skills. First, the child tries to roughly pull the two front halves of the shirt open, almost ripping buttons and fabric away. When I see this happening, I explain to my kids that this damages their clothes. Then, I offer to show them how to do it without ripping anything. At first, my kids usually refuse, and keep ripping at it, then give up and ask me to do it for them. Over time, curiosity gets the better of them and they become more willing to be shown how.

After this, it takes a lot of practice, but they get there! Oh my god, the pride that spreads across their faces when this happens is priceless. Performing this task does wonders for their eye-hand coordination and it strengthens the muscles in their hands. I find it’s a great lead-up to learning to tie their shoelaces later on, a more complex task.

This is Mr 4′s last year before he starts school, and I’ve worked hard on preparing him for it. His mastery of this skill is another stepping stone on the path to school readiness.

If kids are interested, or are finding learning this skill too difficult, they can always practise on doll’s clothes or dress up clothes. Often, it’s easier to learn how to use buttons if you’re not wearing the clothing, and looking down at what you’re doing. Dress-up clothes are often over sized items from parents, which give more generous movement.

What self-help skills are your children learning at the moment?

Other reading:

Learn by doing – laundry

Emotional development – initiative

Kids growing mushrooms

Mr Three makes pea and ham soup

Slow down

8 Comments -

Finding the Source of Your Child’s Anger

Written on February 12th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Behaviour, Emotional, February 2011, Language, Parenting

‘What’s gotten into him lately?’ Us parents often find ourselves asking this when our child’s anger gets out of control. Or more frequent. This is part two of my anger in children series – figuring out what’s gotten our child so riled up.

Talk to me

When my child is calm, and not in the throes of rage, I talk to them about their anger. I look for things that are worrying, upsetting, frightening or annoying them. Over time, I’ve been teaching Mr 4 about how to name his feelings (think in terms of years, not overnight). This means that that when he’s feeling a certain way, I will use one word to describe it. With repetition, he’s learned what disappointment, frustration and a whole host of other feelings mean. It’s bloody hard for a child to express their feelings when they don’t know what they’re called!

My children enjoy playing our felt game, faces with feelings for fun, but it has the bonus of teaching them to identify and talk about emotions. They enjoy acting out the different feelings, making up scenarios, voices and dialogue. With this foundation, I can talk to my child knowing they’ll understand the emotional concepts I mention.

Reflective listening

I often use this approach here. (I don’t use it as often with Missy 10, as I can ask her what’s wrong and she’ll easily tell me. But it’s good to have a range of approaches for different personalities). Yesterday, after Mr 4 was more open to talking after an explosive episode, I told him, ‘You’re angry because yesterday I told you Daddy’s going back to hospital for a longer time’

Mr 4 tensed up with fury. I knew I was on the right track.

Him: ‘I don’t want him to go’

Me: ‘You’re going to miss Daddy when he’s in hospital’ He nodded.

Me: ‘Last time Daddy went to hospital, you told me he wasn’t coming back, remember?’ He nodded.

Me: ‘And did he come back?’ His eyes widened, and he nodded some more.

Me: ‘You were so surprised and excited when he came home, weren’t you?’ He nodded, got up, gave me a hug and began crying. (Yes, I had some tears, too!)

I let him cry and told him it’s good to let his sadness out. Next, I told him, ‘you’re worried Daddy won’t come back this time too, aren’t you?’ He nodded, and I reassured him that he’d come back this time too, and it’d be such a happy time. He smiled at this, then became serious. ‘Why did you need a doctor’s appointment anyway?’ Ah-ha!

Can you see how this reflective listening works? Without having to interrogate your child, you can expose their deepest, darkest fears – the ones you wouldn’t have guessed. Let’s face it, we can only deal with these issues once they’re out on the table.

Four is such an emotionally intense age. You’ve got the over-active imagination, the monsters in the bedroom and above all, the most literal interpretation of cause and effect. See, my partner has had a lot of doctor’s appointments over the past year and a half. Notably, when he went to hospital for paint poisoning, it was within the hour of returning from a doctor’s appointment. Is it any wonder, that being four years old, he believes that a doctor’s appointment causes us to go to hospital? The truth is, it’s the illness, and the extent of it that caused it.

Similarly, that time he went to hospital, I was the one who rang the ambulance. My son was two years old at the time, and full of resentment toward me. All he could see was that I put his father there (and my partner was refusing to go!), and when he asked if he was coming home, I was the one saying no. He couldn’t see that the illness was causing the hospital stay then, either. To him, I made the phone call, therefore I caused it.

On further discussion, we talked about how he was afraid that both of his parents would end up in hospital at the same time, and he’d have no-one left to look after him. With reflective listening, we scraped through his anger and sadness to reveal a frightened little boy. I won’t bore you with the dialogue, but of course I reassured him that this wasn’t going to happen at all.

Preventative measures

Once we know the source of our child’s anger, we can use this to take preventative measures. I am making sure to explain everything I can about this hospital stay and checking if he has any more questions or worries about it. Because my son gets very physical when he’s mad, I look for ways to help him have a physical release in his play. I see that it’s important that he spend lots of time with both parents as much as is possible, so we allow for that, too.

He and Missy 2 have had some dreadful fights lately, which have also made him angry. I try to ensure they have plenty of time apart to prevent that anger build-up. I remind myself to give my kids fish oil. It’s annoying how everytime things get stressful around here, I forget to give it to them, when in reality, that’s when they need it most!

Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about teaching our children healthy ways to express their anger. I believe if anger isn’t expressed, it can have destructive effects. My son avoids expressing his anger and bottles it up until he explodes. This is the life lesson he needs at the moment, and it’s the one we’re teaching him. It takes time, but I know we’ll get there.

To get in the mood for tomorrow’s installment, how do your kids express their anger? Are you happy with how they do it? What would you like to see improved?

Other reading:

Healthy ways children can express their anger

Ground rules for anger

Consequences of anger

Finding the source of the anger

12 Comments -

Dealing With Anger in Children

Written on February 11th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Behaviour, Emotional, February 2011, Parenting, Social

I’m writing this with a bruised chin tonight. You see, Mr 4 decided that he was so angry at the world, that throwing a heavy wooden toy at my face would make him feel better. Charming.

I mentioned here yesterday and also to my son that my partner is going to hospital next week for a long time. Every other time his dad’s gone to hospital has led my son to become increasingly angry and upset. Unfortunately, he expresses his anger explosively and violently. He becomes defiant, breaking the rules on purpose to get a reaction. He tries saying disrespectful things, such as ‘shut up’, that he knows he isn’t allowed to say.

After having broken the news to him about his father’s impending hospital stay, I braced myself for all of this. My son was right on schedule today, exploding like a time bomb.

As you can imagine, I also feel anger over his behaviour. Like any parent, sometimes I handle it well, other times I handle it terribly. What better time for me to write about this subject, whilst it’s so fresh in my mind? I’m going to write a series about anger management for children over the next few days. Over the course of the series I’ll share how I dealt with my son’s behaviour this time around.

Each day, I’ll cover different aspects that I’m teaching my children about anger. They include:

Healthy ways children can express their anger

Ground rules for anger

Consequences for harmful expressions of anger

Repetition

Anger in the real world

Teaching a child how anger works.

I hope you’ll journey with me during this series, and share your thoughts and ideas with everyone. What I’d love to hear from you today, is what you feel causes your child/ren to get angry?

Other reading:

Emotional development – how help children talk about feelings.

Emotional development – initiative

6 Comments -

Helping Kids to Make Choices

Written on January 21st, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Cognitive, Emotional, Experiences, January 2011, Language, Preschool aged, School aged, Social

My two year old daughter and four year old son stress me out all day long. It’s true. They’re both at the age where they are fighting for autonomy and trying to be ‘big’ and helpful. This is fine and dandy, but it can get to the stage where every little thing becomes a power struggle. All developmentally normal behaviour, but terribly draining. What kids this age are really fighting for, is just a chance be heard. To have a say, make a choice.

When was the last time someone demanded you do something, without giving you a choice? Ok, yeah yeah. If you’ve got under fives, it’s everyday, I know! Let’s be more specific. When was the last time an adult demanded something of you? How did you like it? Our kids are no different! And even though Missy 10 is obviously more emotionally mature than her siblings, it’s still important to her, too. As she journeys further through puberty, this need will become more prevalent than ever before.

What if I told you that giving your kids more choices would save you time? Result in happier, more co-operative children? Children more keen to listen to reason? When a child encounters an adult who allows them choices, they are more respectful towards that adult, and receptive to them.

But my three year old can’t handle choices, you say! Everyday, she stares into her wardrobe, pulls all the clothes out and can’t decide what she wants. The idea is to start with choices they can handle, and over time, they’ll be capable of more and more.

The green or the blue?

I don’t give my two children under five a choice out of twenty things. For example, if I’m getting them dressed, I offer two suitable outfits per child, and ask them, ‘which one would you like to wear today?’ This is a simple choice for them to make, it’s not overwhelming, and they can walk away from the experience feeling empowered and important.

Take turns at choosing

It can be challenging when you have two little ones who both want to make a choice about what they’re doing together and disagree. This is just priceless. Two kids throwing a tantrum, because they both just want what they want. Yay. If we’re having tv time, we try to make sure everyone gets a turn to choose. So, Mr 4 will yell out, ‘I want to watch Thomas!’ But the answer will be, ‘no, you chose the dvd last time, now it’s Missy 2′s turn to choose’. Yes, there is some sulking, but because the kids are used to being given turns, they accept it and know their turn will come. It’s important for kids to learn that there are others in the family too, and everyone matters. This teaches them respect for others.

It also makes it easier for them to accept if mum or dad wants to watch their own show. Yes, mums and dads matter too! Some families let their members take turns at who chooses what is for dinner each night. I want to do this, but I’m just not that organised right now! If you can do it though, go for it. It cuts out a lot of complaining about food dislikes. It guarantees that every night, at least someone will like the meal.

Let them choose parts of the daily routine

Kids under five often really get their knickers in a knot when they want to do something themselves. Missy 2 is potty training at the moment. She loves it. However, she was screaming every time she had an accident. Of course, I told her it was ok, but she kept screaming. I couldn’t make out what she was saying. We eventually deciphered that she wanted to be the one to put her undies in the laundry to be washed! This reiterates what I was talking about with tantrums caused by lack of language.

So now, Missy 2, feeling empowered by this new sense of autonomy, insists on always putting her undies in the laundry and walking with me to get a clean pair. As we walk back, she’ll say, ‘come on, Mummy!’ It’s very cute, but she really feels she’s the boss of that moment. I don’t give my kids full reign over all of our routines, but if their days are punctuated by moments like this, it makes their days more joyful. I think it’s nice when everyone in the family gets some say in the daily routine of the household.

All of our kids have created their own bed time rituals too. We still have some shockers of nights. Tonight was a good example of one of those, but I think that had more to do with the fact that all three knew I was planning to write this post! We let the kids choose what they’d like to take to bed, what song they’d like us to sing, etc. They all have different needs.

Missy 2′s are simple. I want to go to bed. She likes picking a flower to take to bed, but at the moment the flower bushes are too bare! But she likes to go to bed, where her pretty flower sheets and butterfly curtains are, that her mum made. She usually picks out a few toys to snuggle with.

Mr 4 needs comforting, as he’s at the age of nightmares, and an overactive imagination. So, as a result, his routine has evolved into a quiet cuddle and a chat about anything that’s worrying him. He’s also been a bit more clingy, because his dad’s been in and out of hospital over the years and will be going back again soon.

Missy 10 likes to read before bed. We mostly let her, unless it’s getting too late. She likes to fill up her water bottle to take to her room, clear her toys off her bed, and she has her bed toys and blankets set up a certain way. She always asks if the puppies can come in to ‘say goodnight’, and if they’re agreeable, we allow it. Sometimes they end up falling asleep snuggling her!

More rope as they get older

As Missy 10 embarks on adolescence, she approaches a time where kids have a biological need to break away from their parents. It’s at this stage, they are subconsciously preparing for adulthood, the big, bad world. As terrifying as this is for us parents, it’s important to not suddenly revoke all choices from them in fear! Can you imagine the rebellion?

I’m finding that our daughter is happy to respect our wishes (rules), if we give her choices within that. So, she can choose the movie we go to see, sometimes, but it has to be something we feel is appropriate. We also try to help her understand the reasoning behind it. Usually, it’s along the lines of, ‘that one’s a bit too adult sweety, but in a couple of years, you’ll love it!’, ‘this one is pretty scary’, or ‘that one’s a bit too rude for kids your age’. We all agree that these are good reasons, so it works out. Because she’s been told she’s getting closer to being able to watch more mature things soon, it’s given her something to look forward to.

It’ll be interesting to see how this all pans out once she’s a teen, huh?

What choices have your kids been making lately?

Other reading:

Sibling rivalry solutions

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – will you let your child see the movie?

Back to school: does your child need glasses?

8 Comments -

‘Why Don’t You Just Give Your Kid Contact Lenses?’

Written on January 14th, 2011 by Hear Mum Roar in Care, Challenges, January 2011, Parenting, Soap box

This is a question I’ve been asked frequently since Missy 10 started wearing prescription glasses full-time at the age of five. I’ve been told by other ‘experts’ on my child (read: busy bodies) that it’s cruel for me to send my child to school with a reason for kids to tease her. It’s cruel, because apparently, according to these ‘experts’, that she won’t feel confident, or attractive. (Of course! I forgot to teach my daughter that her sole purpose in life was to focus on her appearance, because that’s all women are good for, right? I’m guessing that all the science she does and books and learnin’ are a waste of time too?)

Apart from the most important point in all this, which is that other parents’ choices aren’t anyone else’s business, and apart from the fact that the only experts on our child are us, the parents, I have many good reasons why I don’t get her contact lenses.

I’m not prepared to pay for expensive lenses when there are other mouths in this house to be fed, and possibly other children who may (but hopefully not) end up needing glasses also. Not in the name of vanity, I won’t.

My daughter actually needed glasses, not lenses when she started out wearing them, as one eye was severely turned inward. Glasses could help to straighten this problem, and train the eye ahead, whereas lenses could not.

I didn’t feel that my daughter was or is at a stage where she can competently and confidently place the lenses in her eyes. Also, I’ve never used lenses, so I don’t feel confident in my ability to help her. (But I would love to try out some cool coloured ones, one day!) The idea of her getting an infection unnecessarily, concerns me. I’ve heard that there can be other risks with contact lenses, and for growing eyes, I don’t feel it’s worth the risk. Poor hygiene when using contacts can be extremely dangerous, and whilst I like to drum the importance of hygiene into my kids, I’m not ready to hand the responsibility of that with lenses over to my daughter at this age.

My daughter has been teased in the past about her glasses, yes. Probably not as much as she would’ve been back in the years when I went to school, kids were more brutal and teachers turned a blind eye. Do I want my daughter to be teased? Of course not! Is it my fault or her fault for not conforming when she does get teased? Absolutely not. I teach my children not to tease or bully others, and that’s the best I can do. If more parents did this, then perhaps that would cut out the bullying problems in schools better than everyone else having to change who they are to suit someone whose opinion just doesn’t matter. It’s important to me that I teach my children not to change who you are for anyone, especially not rude people. Lead, don’t follow, is our mantra in this family.

No one wants their child to be bullied, and when it happens, I help my daughter through it. But let’s face it; we become who we are based on our life experiences. We become stronger people, more compassionate people, when we aren’t shielded from the life condition. If my daughter weren’t teased about glasses, kids would find something else. Some kids just look for reasons to tease, and I can’t control her entire life and all the experiences she is going to have. But I can support her if something bad happens, I can advocate for her at the school, also. Best of all, I can teach her how to cope with the arseholes of the world. She’s going to need to learn how to do that!

As much as I wish she didn’t need glasses, and I know my daughter does as well, the good thing that has come out of this, is that she has now had an experience which I believe has been very character building and enables her to empathise with others in a similar situation. I know she wouldn’t tease someone about wearing glasses, ever.

But for me, possibly the most important reason that I don’t give my daughter lenses, is because she doesn’t want them. A question that these nosey parker ‘experts’ have failed to ever bother asking. Now, as a parent, there are things my daughter doesn’t want to do that she has to do, like it or not. We’re the parents, and we get the final decision. But not on something purely based on vanity. My daughter would be the one who’d have to put these into her eyes everyday, and to be honest, the idea frightens her and grosses her out. I don’t think it’s wise to force this on her if she feels this way.

After all that’s said and done, I remember my daughter’s last eye appointment (she’s due for another one, which has gotten me thinking about this again). My partner took her, whilst I stayed at home. They were told that her eyesight had drastically improved. Looking back, I now wonder if she actually even needs to be wearing them full time at all! Of course, things were pretty hectic at the time, and the idea hadn’t occurred to me. Her eye has drastically straightened out lately, too. We’re hoping she may not need surgery for this, after all. But I’m going to contradict everything I’ve said above, now. When we go to her next appointment, I’m going to ask if she actually needs to be wearing glasses full time anymore, or just for reading. I wonder if optometrists and opthalmologists think to tell people if they don’t need to be wearing glasses permanently?

I want to ask, because I know it’d be the best gift I could give my child. I know she makes the best out of wearing glasses, and is as positive about it as she can be, but I also know that she doesn’t like having to wear them. A couple of years ago, our family had a little photo shoot, and it occurred to me, she doesn’t need to wear them just to have her photo taken. So, I let her take them off, and she was so excited, it gave her this gigantic lift! I so badly would love to give her that again one day, not for peer pressure, or appearance reasons, but to give her that same sense of freedom all over again.

What about you? Do any of your kids need glasses? Do you let them wear contacts sometimes?

Other reading:

Upset

How I saved almost $800 on my daughter’s glasses

18 Comments -

Learn by doing – laundry

Written on October 14th, 2010 by Hear Mum Roar in Cognitive, Fine motor, Language, Messy play, October 2010, Preschool aged, Social

Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.

- Ancient proverb

Following on from my recent post about initiative, I involved Mr 4 and Missy 2 in washing some clothes. I had lots of laundry to catch up on and hang out to dry. So I set up a plastic tub with warm water and Ecostore laundry powder (nice and gentle for little hands) and some laundry that had minimal soiling. Being a water activity, of course it’s important to always supervise young children.

Doing household chores together is a great learning opportunity for kids. They learnt/talked about:

- the different names of clothing: ‘what type of clothing is this?’ Eg, shirt, dress, undies, etc.

- the concept of people having a place in the family, and their own possessions: ‘who’s shirt is this?’

- colours: ‘what colour is this shirt?’

- cause and effect: ‘why is the water becoming so brown?’

- the sequence of events: first the children used soapy water, then scrubbed the clothing, then we rinsed with clear water, squeezed the excess liquid out and finally we hung them out to dry.

- how to play together. Missy 2 and Mr 4 had a few disagreements during this activity. This gave us a chance to talk about their feelings and listen to each other.

- sensory awareness: children can learn about concepts such as wet/dry, warm/cold, etc.

The children also got a huge amount of exercise for their little muscles! Picking up wet clothing can be heavy work…

It also puts their fine motor skills through their paces as they squeeze… squeeeze… squeeeeeeeeze! the water out of the clothes.

You can also let them help with pegging the clothes out to dry on a small, child-height clothesline. I didn’t, only because we had two puppies with very dirty feet hanging around! But at least this kept my kids busy whilst I hung out all the wet clothes.

What household chores do your children like to help with?