Most of us live our lives looking or at least wishing for the "Easy Way Out". Who wants the sweat, body odor, sore muscles and exhaustion of hard work? We usually want all we can get for as little input as possible. And parents tend to try to make their child's life easy believing they are doing them a loving favor. But I beg to differ with that idea.
Good hard, sweaty, muscle aching, exhausting work develops a lot of valuable character in any person, even a child. When a child knows they are needed by their family to help them with a difficult job it builds a lot of self-worth and self-satisfaction in them. They feel important even if they are griping along the way. Accomplishment, stepping back and knowing "I did that" feels really good.
My husband Lew says that sweat washes the poison out of the soul. At the end of a physically hard working day there is a quietness that comes that isn't just exhaustion.
Hard work develops strengths like endurance, perseverance, thinking ahead so it doesn't get harder and thoroughness. If it's hard I want to do it right the first time so I don't have to do it again. There is a responsible nature that is developed through hard work that will make a young person seem much more mature for their age. All of these characteristics will ensure a much more successful life for them as adults. In fact they will likely be looked to as leaders.
Some parents believe childhood is for play and certainly there should be a balance of play with the work. But it is said that even a child's play should be a practice time for their adulthood. And you can make hard work fun with teasing, competitions in the job and even one-on-one talk time as your hands are busy beside each other. So step back and take another look at good, sweaty, stinky, muscle stretching hard work!