Put him to work.

Putting a four year old to work.

Would I be a terrible parent if I made my 4 year old do his own laundry? It is not as if he has tons of laundry to do or that it is hard for me to do. He just loves to push the buttons on the washer and dryer so why shouldn't I put him to work.

I gathered up all the dirty clothes in his hamper and the towels from his bathroom and headed to the laundry room. He followed. I separated things and added the detergent, he did the rest. When the washer was done he went in and put everything into the dryer, got out a dryer sheet and turned the dryer on. He even folded clothes when they came out of the dryer. Okay I will admit he folded 2 pair of pants and matched up the socks while I did everything else, but that is a start right? Oh and he didn't fold them the way I would but that was alright with me, I left them the way he did it.

He has a job to do each time I unload the dishwasher. He has to put away the eating utensils. It takes him forever and a day to do it but he does get it done. I do go through and take out the sharp knives first but the rest is his job. One that he does well.

Whenever I am vacuuming he sometimes wants to help, other times not so much. You see he has always been fearful of the vacuum so we try to encourage him to help with it, even if only for a minute I feel that is a step in the right direction. Now I will say he feels right at home sweeping the floors. He has his own broom and will go into the hall closet multiple times a day to get that broom and sweep up the floor. I won't complain about that.

He hasn't had to 'clean' his room yet because there isn't much in there. We don't really have toys in there other than his babies to sleep with and a train set. Right now there are too many clothes just laying around because I cleaned out his closet and his dresser and haven't done a thing with them. He does need to clean his playroom out but that will be a month long chore I am sure. The toys are everywhere. We need to get them sorted before we make any decisions on what stays and what goes.