As a child and even as an adult I was teased continuously about being “Suzy Homemaker”. I have always had a passion for keeping a tidy house, making home cooked meals and being the best homemaker I could be and I guess I did a pretty good job since my hubby married me for a lot of those qualities.
As a young mother I was elated when my first child was a girl and I could teach her all the things my mother and grandmothers taught me about keeping a home and being a good wife and mother. My daughter, who now is 30, has become a wonderful wife and mother and I am so proud of her.
Sometimes however, the Lord has different plans for your children then what you had dreamed of. My daughter is a career girl who has a gift for working with the elderly and while she may not have any interest in canning, sewing or gardening; she uses her God given talents to make the elderly feel at ease and cared for and I couldn’t be any prouder.
Go back four years to the time of the birth of my first grand-daughter. As I held little Taylor in my arms I was already day-dreaming if she would be the granddaughter who would inherit some of my homemaking passions. The good Lord has truly blessed me…not only did I get one granddaughter who loves everything I do but I got TWO!
My two-year old granddaughter Hailey is showing signs of loving the country and everything that comes along with it as well. As Hailey was in the chicken house with Poppy yesterday, I couldn’t help but smile thinking she didn’t care one bit that she was stepping in chicken poop all she cared about is catching one of those chickens, saying “Hi” to Drake the rabbit and looking for eggs. While Hailey is still just a bit too young to let me know for sure I certainly get it from all sides with Taylor, who is four.
Last weekend while Taylor was here on an overnight visit she couldn’t wait to go work in the garden with me. With her bucket in hand she went about picking cucumbers and helping me find a ripe watermelon for lunch. She could hardly contain herself once I told her it was her job to wash them once we got them in the house. She was so diligent in moving the chair to the sink and finding the correct vegetable scrubber. It really isn’t a day at Grandmas without the chair getting moved to the counter to help me with something. She is getting tall enough to even wash dishes without standing on a chair and she just loves it when I let her wash them. I remember washing dishes at my Grandma’s house and always loved the look on my Grandma’s face when I was helping her.
So here right in front of my eyes I’m getting to watch the next or maybe the next “two” Suzy Homemakers look to me for guidance. My hopes and dreams are that I can pass on the art of homemaking to my granddaughters. May they grow up to cherish their homes, strive to be a good wife and mother or even be the best career women they can be. But while they are young I am so enjoying filling their little sponge filled brains with the joy of homemaking.
As a grandmother I hope to set an example for them as they see me enjoying my work and to point their hearts in the direction of God and toward home and family. I want to include them in my tasks around the home such as cooking, baking, cleaning, dusting and gardening so they can begin to cultivate the love for homemaking even at this early age.
A few ways to pass on homemaking to young girls:
- Let them stir the cake batter and lick the spoon even if it does make clean-up longer.
- Take them to the garden and let them pick a ripe tomato and or give them the joy of eating the first strawberry of the year…
- Let them put on an apron and belly up to the sink to wash a sink full of dishes even if you have to empty the Tupperware drawer just so they have something safe to wash.
- Hand them a mop and let them go to town on your floors…they think it’s a game and have a ball slipping and sliding on the wet floor.
- Hand them a spray bottom filled with water and let them wash the windows…this will keep either of my granddaughters busy for hours.
- Let them help you hang clothes or let them run through the clothes on the line once they are up. Mine love to play hid-n-seek between the rows.
- The next time you make pie dough hand them a rolling pin and some cookie cutters and let them roll and cut out as much as they want.
- There are so many different things you can let young girls do to make them feel helpful…what are your favorites?
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Here is a list to some of my favorite homemaking tools and resources:
(Contains Affiliate Links)
Hand Made Amish All Broomcorn Broom
Cotton, Printed
Shark
Cotton Wet Mop
Neat ‘N Tidy
Large Wooden Drying Rack
Cotton/Polyester Blend Clothesline
Whitmor Natural Wood Clothespins, 100 pins
Essential Oil-
