Child Labor is a Gute Zach

By BJLife/Tanya Klein
Posted on 03/06/17

So, please don’t judge me until you finish this article, but I think child labor is a great thing!

As a matter of fact, I had two children employed in my services at the tender ages of 8 and 10.

(Hey, it was getting close to Pesach and I was panicking as the hordes were arriving and we were running out of time.  I looked around and nobody at my height level appeared, to magically pitch in with Pesach preparations. Suddenly, I heard a rustle underfoot. (My kids would not begin their growth spurts to the towering heights of 5’6 and 5’4 until lo’ many a later year.   The Klein family considers anyone who Skyrockets past the 5’3 mark an aberration of nature!) And there I saw my two youngest boys, just scampering about, carefree and innocent, not knowing or understanding that their innocent childhood was about to come to an end.

“children,” I trilled (now THAT’s an annoying word,) “who would like to make a lot of money in this house??? Is it mommy? Noooooooooooooooooooo. Is it Tatty????? Noooooooooooooooo. But you guys, you look like you want to make lots and lots of money!!!! ( yeah, I know, I know, chinuch, etc etc, but I WAS DESPERATE!!!!)

And that was the year I came up with the “Child Lottery and Gaming Program.”

All across my kitchen, on every cabinet and drawer, I pasted a “lottery ticket” (using post it notes of various colors) on which I wrote dollar amounts to be redeemed by the cleaner of that particular cabinet. (since I was paying under minimum wage, another unforgivable sin about which I weep daily (okay maybe not) they were not really receiving anything resembling a dollar, but more like a quarter or at times 15 cents for every cabinet to be determined by the gaming warden. (i.e. me.)

I gotta tell ya, my kids slaved, washed and cleaned those cabinets, and one of them made enough money to buy a camera. (Okay maybe not, but I drew a picture of a camera for him and told him to make believe it was a real one.)

My point here is, that you have a wonderful, underutilized natural resource in your home that you should take advantage of this year. You can start them as young as six months old!! As soon as they crawl, tie a towel around their midsection and have them scoot across the kitchen and shine the floors!!

So, child labor is not always a bad thing! Not only did my kids get camera pictures, but I’ve been feeding them for years! Not a bad return on their investment,  methinks.

I hope my very practical tips and hints for Pesach are helping you out, and I’d love to hear from you with any questions and suggestions you might have for Pesach cleaning as well!

Best,

Tanya

As a professional Organizer and public speaker of ‘all things organizing’ serving the Pikesville, Owings Mills, and Towson neighborhoods, Tanya Klein at Precision Organizing   and  Facebook , specializes in residential and home office organization. Tanya’s experience allows her to quickly asses the needs of her clients, and teach them how to best use systems to handle the “stuff” in their lives more effectively. Tanya can be reached by phone at 443-956-2522 or email tanya@PrecisionOrganizing.net