Lazy or Brilliant

It’s been……a long time since you’ve heard from me. I know that this been has been a terrible drought for your souls.

But……here’s what’s been up on this end. Kiko continues on as usual generally which is another way of saying she’s been boring. Not boring in a bad sense but just as she gets older me stones spread out. Months pass without major jumps. But they still come. Recently she has been expressing an increased self awareness and interest in self expression. I recognized this as she became increasingly bitchy. Having recognized the bitchiness I finally realized she was begging for 1) more beatings (which have been lacking recently) and 2) a desire to express herself and be allowed to do more activities independently. Having made this great discovery I then thought about how to facilitate both more beatings and Kiko’s independence.

With regards to independence I have a particular bent toward training children to complete life tasks so I figured let’s teach her to do some useful stuff like the dishes or sweeping or the laundry. So over the past couple of weeks Chie and I have been working with her on all the above chores plus dome others like scrubbing the toilets. Now, you could say that either I am lazy or I am abusive. And you may be right but it is an indisputable fact that young children are more capable than we give them credit got and they are more excited to participate in these mundane tasks than we realize. The proof is in the pudding….check out my slave errr my daughter doing the dishes. This is part of her daily chore schedule. Every morning I tell her “daddy needs coffee” this is code for get to work. After saying these magic words Kiko gets the dishes done, separates the laundry and cleans the table. Lazy father? Maybe. Enjoying watching my two year old do the chores that I don’t have to do…..most definitely!

FYI I have a background in behavioral therapy and training am a big fan of Montessori (not the weird culty parts but the general training pattern). So there is some method to my madness 🙂Previous daddy’s diary here.