Most of the moms that I talk to are overwhelmed and exhausted.  They feel like they are always behind and always rushing to try and catch up.  As a result of this, many mothers feel like failures. I think it’s because of these feelings that the one question I am most frequently asked is,  “How do you do it all?”

The answer is simple – I don’t.  There is no mother that can accomplish everything. But I do get quite a bit accomplished.

One of the secrets to my success are our house rules. There are 7 that the children follow and then there are a couple that I follow. One of my most effective personal rules is:

The youngest person capable of doing the job does it.

All the children are encouraged to teach their younger siblings how to do things so that the older children can pass their jobs to the younger children, thereby freeing up their time so that Jim and I can pass our jobs to the older children.

Here’s an example of this principle in action. I haven’t regularly folded laundry in years.

 And if you do it right, it’s something they enjoy:

Of course, you do have to get over things being perfectly creased and folded.  I am a firm believer in the fact that a few wrinkles never killed anybody.  And you do have to inspect periodically. The way I handle that with laundry is to have Greyden (who is responsible for washing all the laundry) put the clean clothes in my bedroom.  Then it is really easy to tell when they’re falling behind on the laundry. 

But the point is, you have to let the youngest person capable do the job.  You have to give up some of the control.  Yes, you can do it better and you can do it faster than your children.  But if you don’t let go of perfection and start allowing them to do chores, you are dooming yourself to a life of doing everything.  And even worse, you’re dooming your children to a life of expecting everything to be done for them.  

Plus, this is homeschooling at it’s best.  The young ones early on learn:

•  colors
•  teamwork
•  sorting
•  organization
•  how to tackle a large project one step at a time and not get overwhelmed

And the older ones learn how to teach.

I’d be getting a lot less accomplished and a lot less sleep if I didn’t have the youngest person rule. I definitely recommend it.  Start challenging your younger children and you’ll be amazed at what they can accomplish.

What about you?  At what age do your children start with chores and what have you found that they can manage?