Capable young toddlers

The other day I opened the washing machine to take out the laundry when our 14-month old came and started taking it out for me. This made me thinking how capable little kids are in contrast to general belief what young toddlers are capable of.

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Here is a video of my little helper. (She actually managed to finish the task after playing with the bib for a little while.)

When I enter a toy shop, I often get a feeling that young kids need noisy, flashy toys with dozens of functions in order to be entertained for more than a few seconds. Many parenting books describe toddlers (especially the young ones) as chaotic. But does my daughter in the video look like she doesn't know what she was doing? I need to admit, I do not let her help me as much as I did with her older brother when he was her age, mostly because I prefer to have things done as fast as possible as there is always so much to do in one day.

Our 14-month old can do so much:

• Help to un/load a washing machine/dryer
• Help to unload dishwasher (loading in our case means she starts licking the dirty dishes and gets herself ready for an early shower)
• Bring folded laundry to her drawer (not that she remembers where it belongs)
• Wipe her mouth/hands/table/anything around her
• Put on her hat
• Take off her shoes (especially handy if she does it unnoticed on the way somewhere)
• Eat on her own (she loves to eat by the small table on a little chair)
• Somewhat brush her teeth and comb her hair. 
• Be used as a currier between people (bring this to xy)

Mastered putting her hat on.

Why to bother ourselves with having little helpers who are (at least not at the beginning) very helpful? 

I let her help instead of seating her in front of some noisy toy with lights mostly because by letting her being part of my world shows my respect for her, I show her that I know she is capable of helping me, that she is not a helpless baby any more. And that is super important for her self-confidence, to know she/her involvement (no matter how much mess and work it causes) is appreciated. Not to mention helping is refining both her fine and gross motor skills, different tasks do strenghten muscles, which will be needed later for example for writing. Having practical life skills also comes very useful later in life, once the little birds leave their nests and are thrown into the reality of living on their own without mama hotel. I see it quite often (including myself) how unprepared young people are to take care of themselves and I really wish for my kids to be able to do the housework, be able to organize it and give them attitude that chores are not evil thing, but can be somewhat enjoyable (or at least the result).

Jo, anglicky občas budu psát, protože se chystá firemní blog a z angličtiny se budou překládat články (na to, abych psala estonsky fakt nemám).