My 2 Cents

Lately my DIL's (daughters-in-law) have been blogging about raising children and the different challenges that presents.  Since that was my absolute favorite time of life and since I did it 7 times I thought I'd throw out some things I've learned.  Just as a side note, I have the greatest DIL's in the world.  They are amazing mothers and I am so glad that they are raising my grandchildren:) I know that most young mothers are very concerned about what their children eat and that they actually DO eat.  I am one of the pickiest eaters I know so I didn't introduce very many foods into my children's lives because, frankly, if I didn't want to eat it then I wasn't making it and making them eat it.  Very mature and wise, I know.  Somehow though, every one of them now likes wayyy more things than I do.  They got exposed to different foods at other people's houses, on their missions, at college or just being married.  Since I had so many of them and they were fairly close together, I couldn't take too much time trying to get them to eat what they should eat instead of what they wanted to eat.  They grew up on sugared cereal, hot dogs, mac and cheese, Ovaltine, of course, and a few fruits and vegetables thrown in every once in awhile.  Except for a few variations that's what I grew up on too.  If you know my family you know that they are all in pretty good shape, very athletic and very rarely sick.  I think that Heavenly Father knew we would all be distracted by many things in this world and He gave us very resilient bodies that are a lot tougher than we think. When kids are hungry they will eat and when they get too sick of a certain kind of food they will request a different kind.   I commend all the young mothers for doing their best to monitor their children's diets because that is very important but speaking from experience I recommend that you not lose sleep over it because I've never heard of a child starving to death when surrounded by food.  The other fun thing that I remember doing with my kids was introducing them to chores.  This turned out to be a blast.  When they were 4 or 5 I gave each one of them a daily and a weekly chore.  When all 7 were in the house and of age it got a little tricky because there really aren't 7 small things to be done daily without getting very creative.  They ended up emptying trash cans every day and shaking out area rugs and all kinds of not very necessary things just so they could learn the importance of responsibility and accountability.  They actually loved having something "important" to do when they were very little.  As they got older, not so much, but it sure helped me around the house.  I loved making chore charts and rewards systems.  It takes a lot of time and energy but the benefits are immeasurable.  Everyone learned how to clean bathrooms, set and clear the table and do dishes and all kinds of other chores.  Saturdays were my favorites because that's when we did bigger chores like washing cars and doing yard work and we were all together. (cue a tear here, sniff sniff)  They also started doing their own laundry when they turned about 10.  This was the single greatest thing I ever implemented into our lives.  The boys always had lots of sports gear that they had to have clean several times a week so they all did their own clothes and I did me and Pat and anyone who was too young.  The boys also started ironing their own church shirts so they would be able to take care of themselves on their missions and at college.  I failed miserably in the cooking department because I don't like to cook very much so I'm not very excited to teach anyone else.  Somehow they are all alive though so I guess I didn't harm them too badly.  I figure that Savannah has a phone so when she goes to college she can call me for directions on how to make stuff.  With Pinterest and all the other media avenues for getting ideas and information, this generation has access to tons more stuff than I ever did.  I am very jealous and wish I could go back and do it all over again.  It really was THAT fun:)