Saturday, October 8, 2011

Families - The Original Captains of Industry

Maid Elizabeth working for our home business
Yesterday, as I watched my children buzz around the house, completing projects assigned to them, I realized what an industrious group they are.  As each task was completed another brick was laid on which the foundation of our home is anchored.  Without every industrious member of our little band doing his part, the whole of our family would suffer.

For the youngest of our clan, duties range from practicing their copywork to feeding and watering the kitties.  Beds are made and bedrooms tidied.  Socks are paired and the wood box is filled.  As the children get older, their responsibilities increase.  Master Hand Grenade saws and splits firewood and Miss Calamity makes and cans the years supply of Raspberry jam.  Maid Elizabeth busies herself sewing for our home business, baking, cooking and helping me school her younger siblings.  She organizes our nature treks and does craft projects with the kids.  She braids bracelets, zipper pulls and rifle slings from para-cord to sell at gun shows and makes quilts as Christmas gifts for the people she loves.

Princess Dragon Snack working on her copywork
Putting carmel on apples
The finished product
Master Calvin and Princess Dragon Snack helping stack wood
Master Hand Grenade and Princess Dragon Snack snapping beans
I love to see industry.  It warms my heart to see our children working together to complete a job that none of them really wanted to do or come together to work to make someone else's load lighter.  I love seeing children engaging their minds and bodies in productive ways that serve people other than themselves.  I love to see industrious little people bent on completing a task, finding a way to do a job better or trying an innovative approach to a mundane job.  I love to see children engaged in life rather than simply absorbing whatever mind-numbing tripe is funneled their way.

Miss Calamity and Master Hand Grenade splitting wood
Maid Elizabeth making fettucini
Families are the first, best place to teach and encourage industry.  We can't expect to plop our children in front of the television or game console and reap the benefits of industry and ingenuity.  As parents, we have the privilege of mentoring the next generation of industry's giants.  But first, we ourselves must be Captains of Industry.


  1. We do our children and our communities a huge disservice when we expect the kids to learn work ethic outside the home. I know several business people who have problems with teenagers that don't have a work ethic. They don't understand the concept of "if you see something that needs to be done, do it" or "many hands make the load lighter". This becomes a bigger problem when the "kids" are adults and don't know how to "work".
    Not all kids, but many...
    Your children look happy to be helping, and your pride in them is well deserved.

  2. i am so homesick for my childhood home and family after seeing your photos. thankyou for sharing them..

  3. What a beautiful picture of what family living is REALLY all about. I love to see children really experiencing life and playing video games and watching tv is not living at all.

  4. How about the recipe for the carmel you are dipping those apples in :>)

  5. Mentoring as a primary role of Parenthood is where they learn Industry.

    Job well done Enola and Sir Knight!
    Job well done!

    There is so much family joy and love of each other, expressed in these pictures.
    thank you for sharing them.


  6. Such a beautiful family you have. I love the twigs in the carmel apples.


  7. You should look up a Catholic economic theory called Distributism (not the same as the Marxist redistribution of wealth). It seeks to implement the Catholic value of subsidiarity (not the same as subsidy) and solidarity by ensuring the means of production is down at the family level as much as possible and that as many people as possible own property. It was popularized by GK Chesterton and Belloc

    It is very similar to what you describe in your blog post.

    As a Catholic I believe that you can arrive at this state through true free market economics and sound Christian morality.

  8. Anonymous;
    The recipe was in the blog last fall. You can find it here....


  9. love to come to your blog and have a peek on how real family life is . So scary what is going on in this country as far as how parents are raising their children. I always said the downfall of this country started when the mom came out of the house and into the workplace. ( I know there are exceptions to every situation , I speak of the ones that would rather have a giant house and drive an expensive foreign car.)

  10. I have relatives who park their children in front of the idiot box/game console-with absolutely predictable results. My parents were ingenious at making dull,mundane, everyday events interesting..even watching TV(look up TV DXing-learning radio wave propagation while watching the idiot box)-as a pre-teen, setting up a antenna tower and rotor system..just to name one thing. Learning to read at 4, learning to read maps at 6. Calculating scale speeds at 7 or 8(after asking how fast is that Hot Wheel really going?-which led to an afternoon of math made fun). Most children can learn a lot more than they're given credit for,and enjoy it. Don't you remember the joy that went with figuring out something?
    My parents simply got involved-and I suspect they enjoyed it, too.
    One thing that strikes me as odd now is that many times, relatives would just freak after my Dad mentioned something I did-like change a light fixture or some such. Usually,the response was "You let a kid do that?"
    One of the most depressing things, to me, is to see what results from what I call the Ethanol Powered Family. I have way too many relatives like that. If nothing else, I suppose they provide an example of what not to do.