Self Sufficiency
 

I've been teaching my two oldest children how to be more self sufficient. They both do their own laundry, they take turns with washing the dishes and cleaning the bathroom, and they have other responsibilities here at home. Lately, I have been teaching them how to cook a few things on their own. I've taught my son how to make scrambled eggs, Ramen soup, tuna salad, pancakes, etc. We still haven't graduated to actual dinners yet. I've also taught my oldest daughter how to make some of these things as well.

Today I decided to teach my daughter how to make some hot dogs and my son how to make some oatmeal. They both did a good job, but the onion in the hot dogs isn't agreeing too well with the oatmeal my son and I have the worst aftertaste in my mouth!!! YUK! Nothin like a hot dog/onion/oatmeal/cinammon/butter/sugar combination to make a fella not want eat again for a good long while. Blech!

How much stuff do you teach your kids? Along with how to keep a house clean and how to cook, I am planning on teaching mine how to balance a checkbook and juggle bills. My parents didn't teach me anything relating to finances, and I had some really bad years of being broke for no good reason, bounced checks, utilities being shut off, etc. I don't want my babies to have to go through those sorts of problems. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

How to work!!! So many lazy kids. I am so glad my Dad taught us how to work. My son hates the stuff I make him do but it will pay off. I make him help me with everything I do around the house and the cars and he is able he does some of it on his own. He changed the oil in my pickup the last time it was changed...come to think of it its due again...COOOODDDDYYY.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Obviously not enough. Ashley just got married and she can't cook anything. LOL! Of course I couldn't either when I married Eddie. You just make yourself learn. Ashley is good at cleaning though.

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True that! I made a point of teaching my son things like how to do an oil change, change a tire, replace a battery, etc. My oldest daughter is ready to learn some of these things now, so she's next. In fact, one of our cars needs some brake work, so I have been thinking about using that as a time to teach her how to change a tire on a car.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

She'll learn. The first loaf of corn bread my wife made me was so hard I banged it on the kitchen table and proceeded to tell her to bake a few thousand more so we'd have something to build a house out of. :D We laugh and laugh over that one! Sista made me a corn bread brick that day!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Just make sure you are watching closely, when my daughter was about 10 or 11, I bought some Easy-Mac, the kind you can make in the microwave by just adding water. Nasty stuff, but it was for her to use in a pinch.

One night she decided she wanted to make a snack and went down to the kitchen to make some. She came back upstairs while she was waiting. I smelled something funny and started to go downstairs.

When I got to the staircase, there was smoke drifting up. I ran down and went to the microwave; the macaroni was black in the bowl. I was trying to figure out what in the world had happened, and I was asking my daughter what she did.

She said "I followed the directions".

I said "obviously not".

She said "I did, I promise".

I am looking at the bowl and there is not one hint of moisture.

I said "did you add the water?"

Blank look.... she said "Oooohhh". :doh

:groan

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

I'm so glad to hear this, I feel like this is one area where I have let my daughter down, but you know, I didn't know how to do anything either!!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

:toofunny :toofunny :toofunny

This sounds like my girls!!!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Oh, so you feel my pain?!!

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Well, the apple never falls very far from the tree, and your name is DizzyDe...........................I'm just sayin! :D

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Yeah I do. I have girls 20 and 23 - I know exactly where you're coming from. My stepsons can cook more than the girls can. I have to admit though, Tiffany has been trying to learn since she got married.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

:smack :foottap


Well, OK, :nod

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

I don't know if you are like me, but patience is not one of my strong points! I will try to teach her how to do something around the house, and finally I will be like, oh dear Lord, get out of the way!!! :sad

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Someone was at my house the other day and she made this observation. Any time one of my children does something right, I let them know they are flesh of my flesh and shining examples of what it means to be a Rodriquez. Whenever they do something wrong I let them know it's plain to see they are related to my wife!!! :D :killinme

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

As I type this my ten year old daughter is asking to go to the store and buy cream cheese for a desert she saw in a magazine that she wants to make... Oh for the days of easy mac!!!

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Wow! My girl hasn't got much past that easy mac stage... Well, a little, but not much.

Although, she got a bee in her bonnet about wanting to do the turkey at Thanksgiving, and talked my mom into letting her do it. She actually did a really good job!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

lol! Greatness!!!!!!!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

My son made about 100 loaves of banana bread for his mission trip.... on the second day, they mixer over heated, so he had to make all the others by hand stirring.... what a mean Mom!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

My mother was determined that when her children left home, the would be able to take care of themselves.

by the age of 18 all 4 of us were completly capable of running a house entirely. I could do just about any basic maintanence on a car including changing an alternator and other basic repair.

If we ate on Friday nights, it was because we fixed something for ourselves, she was OFF that night. I remember making real mac and cheese standing in a chair so I could stir the pot! (before anyone freaks out, mom was right there watching me).


My 3 year old "cooks" now. he helps in the kitchen all the time. he "helps" with washing dishes, he cooks his own scrambled eggs, mac n cheese, sautes veggies, makes cookies

of course all very closely supervised (even with my hand on the spoon he stirs with)

he also helps put up folded clothes, picks up his toys, puts clothes in the dryer from time to time.

my boys will be self sufficent at an early age.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Well then you can come fix my alternator~!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

MI gave my boys, 7 and 8, a can drink machine last month. We set it up at our house in a trailer park. They have to check it and keep it filled, but I do help them stack the cans when it gets over their heads.

We counted the money a few days ago and they cleared $40 for the month.

I'm teach them to make enough to take care of me when I get old!:grampa

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

really its only 1 bolt and two wires and 1 belt! you should be able to get that done in a few minutes!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

I appreciate it, but my husband came home after 12 hours of work and 2 hours commuting and fixed it in 18 minutes flat! (I gave hima 30 minute time limit, after that he would have to work the weekend!)

I am sooo proud! :friend

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Um, it takes two to hold an alternator in place, but who's counting. You can generally loosen one of them to adjust the tension on the belt, but many of these newer cars have the alternator mounted in a fixed position and the tension on the belt is adjusted via something else. The really easy ones to change are on GM front wheel drive cars. I had a Buick LeSabre a few years back and it was the easiest alternator I've had in replacing. Good thing too, cause I had to do it twice in less than a year.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

he is a good boy!

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

My older three kids should be expert cooks by the time they go off to college. Both their mother and step mom are very good cooks (It's always been hard on me keeping the weight off eating their cooking) but they will have to rely on my current wife and myself to teach them how to clean. Their mother never could understand the concept of clean and organized.

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Most of the time....

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

I teach a yearbook class at school, and when I came on staff this year I not only rocked the boat, I turned it upside down!
Traditionally, The yearbook teacher has always created the yearbook, with the "staff" watching. I was not ok with that. This is a class where kids learn responsibility. I gave it to them. I watched for mistaked and I guided and taught them, but they did it. Some of the other teachers were saying that I was the calmest YB advisor they had ever met. I said "what do I have to worry about, it's their baby". Did we make a few mistakes? Yep, Did they learn something? Absolutely. I turned the class into more of a leadership development class and they went above and beyond! We need to teach our kids responsibility and leadership!

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3 bolts, 1 nut, 1 belt and disconecting the battery cable.

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Teach girls about simple maintenance on a car. About the tire changing, getting the lug nuts off might be a chore Rico.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

If you catch a child at the age they want to help or do everything for themselves, that is when you can really start fostering self sufficiency and the work ethic. All but one of my kids are hard workers. My two oldest daughters worked as housekeepers and laundry workers in nursing homes, at young ages. Not only did they learn to work hard, they learned how to be more compassionate to the elderly and disabled. My oldest granddaugther works hard inside and outside the house.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Good stuff. I make my boys work around the house. The 11 yr old can cook basic breakfast and lunch stuff and helps with dinner. He cleans, vacuums, changes diapers, can do laundry, and starting next week will learn to mow and trim the yard. The 4 yr old does help w/stuff here and there but nothing consistent yet. He's our challenge. The 3 month old doesn't do much yet. We're praying for him. Lazy kid. :)

My oldest son wants to start making money so it'll be a good time to teach him about banking and accounting. He learned a little about debt the other day. He forgot to take his cellphone out of his pants and they got washed. I made him pay the $60 for the phone by working it off around the house at $5 an hour. I told him this was like being in debt, you work your butt off for somebody else and don't see the money in your pocket. He didn't like it. haha.

Interestingly enough, just the other day he asked me about alternators and how they work. How weird is that?

Like Rico I didn't learn any of this myself when at home. So I want to make sure my kids are equipped with the fundamentals of running their own home when they leave my home. I've made too many mistakes, especially financially, because of my lack of training in those basic areas. Hopefully my kids won't make the same mistakes.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

Having 5 boys it is one of their jobs to carry in the groceries. My littlest boy is almost 2 and he insists on carrying a bag, even if it is too heavy. When my daughter does her chores he helps her with whatever she is doing, including cooking. Right now it is fun to him and he doesn't know it is work. If they are trained to be a part of the family when they are little it helps when they are older knowing they are needed to do their part.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

My husband often works long hours and it is so funny, because my 14 year-old son tries to step into the man role when he can. If it is cold and we need a fire, he will be bringing in wood, making kindling, carrying heavy stuff; anything that his Dad would be doing, he will do and not allow the "girls" (myself and my daughter) to help. But if it is a "kid job" like taking out the trash, or cleaning up his room, he has to be asked...

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

*gasp* My SARAH did the EXACT same thing!!!! LOL!!! During the ice storm last year, our electricity went out, so we were staying at a friend's house. We came back from the grocery store, and the entire house smelled like burnt tuna (or something equally terrible)!!!! Sarah put the Easy Mac in the microwave with no water and burnt it to a CRISP!

The bad part? My dear absent minded daughter repeated the mistake a couple of months later in the church microwave. :D

*sigh*

I have a LOT of work to do. Hannah (the oldest) is already very proficient in the kitchen, but Sarah (age 10)...I'm not sure I'd trust her to boil water.

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

You call that work??? :evilglee

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That is hilarious, and actually comforting to know!! I am not alone! :toofunny

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

train up a child in the way he should go, aint just about faith....

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

SHHHHHHHH:scorebad

Re: Self Sufficiency
 

I think teaching your child to cook, is an important task that many parents inadvertantly neglect. I was never taught to cook, and for the first 6 years my husband and I were together, we lived on mainly processed food.

I credit poverty as my real motivation in learning. When it comes to food, you both pay for the convience of not having to make it yourself, not to mention how unhealthy it is.

I only learned 4 years ago, that mashed potatoes didn't come in a box full of flakes.

I was actually so proud of myself the other day. Trying to use up our overabudance of plums from our trees, I made two plum pies. I didn't make the crusts (baby steps, LOL), but the rest was from scratch. They were very yummy, tasted like Cherry Pies.