First, I thought I’d share a quick update. The young women group from my Church met tonight and we did pick fireweed and make jelly! It was so much fun to get out and listen to them visiting and picking and then come in and make something yummy!

The jelly is finished, but they weren’t able to take home a jar tonight as it has to cool on my counter for at least 12 hours. I’ll take it to them on Sunday. We did save a little bit to test though and had a couple spoons of hot jelly on bread. It was delicious.

One of the prompts from the back end of my website today I have thought about on and off the last couple of days, so I thought I’d share my thoughts. The prompt was: If you had to give one piece of life-changing advice, what would it be?

Learn how to work

And, be willing to work and work hard.

My husband and I own a construction company. It’s not a big company, but over the years we have tried hiring outside help. We have hired teens and young adults to work for us. We have found that most people now do not know how to work.

I’m not even talking about hard work yet. Just getting to work on time, staying off their cell phones, paying attention to what’s going on, learning the job so that they could do it independently. Those types of things.

With the exception of one employee, and our own children, we have never hired anyone long term. Some employee’s quit because it’s a lot more work than they anticipated. Some we just don’t ask to come back after a few days having them help out.

Construction definitely isn’t easy, but it seems like most people now want to get paid really well for not doing very much. Those types of jobs are few and far between, if they even exist. And the ones that do exist required a lot of hard work to get to the place where they could actually not work so hard and still get paid.

The place where we’re building currently is a smallish business, and the owner, tells us occasionally how hard it is to find good help. Sometimes he laughingly brushes off his current employee’s lack of work ethic. Other times it’s downright frustrating. We understand all too well.

Working is a learned trait. It’s learned in the home first. You may ask then, how do we teach our kids how to work? I have 2 pieces of advice there:

1. Give them chores and responsibilities

When there is a household of people, everyone should be contributing to the cleanliness of the space because everyone is contributing to the messes that are created. Teach kids to clean up after themselves, as well as to take responsibility for a family area like the living room or bathroom, as well as for their own space.

Follow through when you ask them to clean up. Get up and go check to make sure it’s done. Make sure there’s a standard and that they know what the standard is. Don’t let it slide if it doesn’t meet that standard.

2. Work with them

Never ask someone to do something you aren’t willing to do yourself. You should be able to help, demonstrate, and work along side whomever, your child, the employee you’re training, etc.

Most people learn better through demonstration and actually doing the task with someone more knowledgeable. First demonstrate, then stand back and assist where needed. That may have to happen a couple of times. Then come back when the job is done and make any corrections, possibly helping to correct.

I would usually say that the finished job is a great reward, but I do also think, especially with young kids, a reward system works well too. I’m not above giving allowance for jobs that go above and beyond normal house care. We also paid our kids to work for us on our job sites.

My kids also enjoyed the random treat run after particularly hard, and out of the ordinary jobs, like hauling wood, filling potholes on the driveway, things they weren’t going to get paid for, but a treat makes it worth it.

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