Family Rehab<\/a> last summer. \u00a0The deal was we paid more allowance, they did more work around the house without complaining. \u00a0We definitely paid more allowance, but their end of the bargain? \u00a0Not so much.<\/p>\nAnd to make matters worse, not only did I not get a clean kitchen every night after shopping for ingredients and cooking a healthy, nutritious and delicious dinner, I got to hear and mediate a lot of squabbling, mostly about who wasn\u2019t doing their fair share of cleaning. <\/p>\n
So this week we tried a new strategy. \u00a0Every kid gets two nights\/week to clean the kitchen and they have to clean everything on their own\u2013dishes, counters, table, floors\u2013all of it. <\/p>\n
For 3 nights, it worked like a dream. \u00a0Ling cleaned Monday, Kai cleaned Tuesday, and Ren (with Scott\u2019s help) cleaned Wednesday. \u00a0It took each of them less time because instead of shrieking \u201c___\u2019s doing nothing! \u00a0___\u2019s reading! \u00a0____\u2019s useless!\u201d \u00a0They were actually cleaning.<\/p>\n
You would think it\u2019d be better to work hard, work together and get it all done. \u00a0The more the merrier, many hands make light work, etc. etc. \u00a0But clearly not in our family.<\/p>\n
All this makes me wonder what my kids are learning about teamwork. \u00a0And what I actually believe about teamwork myself. \u00a0Recently I read a study that people\u2019s best work happens alone, and that if you want your employees to be efficient, making them spend their best time alone is the best solution. <\/p>\n
This goes against what I thought I believed, yet it\u2019s also what we\u2019ve been experiencing as a family. \u00a0 Most often, when the kids have group projects, they turn into nightmares. \u00a0We just experienced one of these projects, a project that was 20% of the grade, and where my kid\u2019s partner said she couldn\u2019t work all day the Sunday before the project was due. \u00a0My child ended up working all day and all night on the project, finished it, but didn\u2019t study for a math test which then was flunked. \u00a0The other child did not<\/i> flunk the math test and the cynic in me thinks this child was studying for math all day Sunday. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s not an academic group project I\u2019ve done from elementary through grad school where I did not perceive that I did the vast majority of the work\u2013mostly because I was NOT going to let my partner(s) affect my GPA. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Yet in ministry it\u2019s been so different. \u00a0Yes, there are projects where I feel like I pulled most of the weight, but there are plenty of other projects where someone else did. \u00a0And there\u2019s not a single project that would have come out as well if I had worked alone. \u00a0Not a talk. \u00a0Not a training. \u00a0Not a retreat. \u00a0Not a missions project. \u00a0Nothing.<\/p>\n
When you work with a bunch of highly motivated colleagues who\u2019re willing to work hard and well, there\u2019s no comparison! \u00a0No single person can put out that level of excellence or create the joy of synergy. \u00a0And because my work involves trying to reach a diverse graduate population of students and faculty, we need our differences, our gender, ethnic, Myers-Briggs, Enneagram, age and perspective differences. \u00a0 <\/p>\n
Our fall retreat tradition has been to have a male and a female preacher preach together Sunday morning. It takes about 500% more work to write a great sermon with someone else, but having the two voices, the two perspectives has been priceless.<\/p>\n
But add a person or two who doesn\u2019t work, who whines, who criticizes others work while neglecting to do their own, and the whole equation changes. <\/p>\n
In other words, our family system.<\/p>\n
Last night we hit a snag. \u00a0I thought I\u2019d been clear about who was supposed to clean but a big argument ensued and because Scott couldn\u2019t stand the noise, he insisted on cleaning the kitchen instead. <\/p>\n
Time for a sign up list, but 3 cheers for kids cleaning alone!<\/p>\n
How do you manage household cleaning?\u00a0<\/i>
How do you get kids (or anyone) to work as a team?<\/i>
Do you think it\u2019s better to work alone or in groups?<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Those who follow this blog know that we\u2019ve struggled as a family around work, especially housework. A lot. Maybe if I had trained better at this age. . . It led to Family Rehab last summer. \u00a0The deal was we paid more allowance, they did more work around the house without complaining. \u00a0We definitely paid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n