Educated, not unusual

I was chatting with neighbors the other evening. One of the kids wiped bubble solution on Alex's sleeve, and I made a smart remark about how sad it was that his shirt was dirty since he'd just done his laundry earlier in the day.

My neighbor's jaw hit the driveway. "He does his own laundry?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, they both do. It's one of the things I taught them for school a couple years ago. We do home ec."

She shook her head. "That's amazing. I can't get my kids to do anything except pick up their rooms."

I get this a lot, actually. I decided when my kids were toddlers that I would not send them into the world unable to do basic domestic stuff. As soon as they were tall enough to see the top of the washer, I taught them how to sort clothes. I let them help me load them. Of course, by then they were big enough to take clothes out of the drier if a basket was directly in front of it. Folding wasn't far behind.

As soon as I was sure they wouldn't burn themselves, I started cooking and baking lessons. That led naturally to kitchen safety and clean-up.

I'm not bragging. I've just noticed over the years that adults underestimate what kids can do. My kids don't do things perfectly, but I've never expected perfection. When they volunteer to make dinner, I let them. We've had some less than perfect meals, but how else are they going to learn? They've never made anything that wasn't edible. That's more than I can say about some adults, which was the whole point.