This past weekend the weather here co-operated and we did some much needed yard maintenance. I swear that it feels like we spend nine months bundled up in the arctic cold and then three months trying to get all the stuff done outside had to be neglected during our hibernation.

The children were helping with the weeding, putting down the bark mulch, planting a few flowers, punctuated by periods of flipping around the front yard like circus folks.

My oldest son had mowed the lawn, but the edges around the flowerbeds really needed to be weed whacked. Not a job I necessarily trust any of my children to do, since I do not want to be left with a flowerbed full of headless stems.

The weed whacker was out of line and we had no gas/oil mix to fill it with. Not to be deterred, my husband went into the shed and came out with a pair of huge scissors. He began trimming the edges near the front porch, just to clean it up a little, never intending to go all the way around the yard like that.

The younger children saw and ran over. They thought it was the COOLEST. THING. EVER! They all wanted a turn with the big scissors.

Who knew that lawn maintenance could be so much fun?

Must go flip around the yard so more, so great is the excitement.

It would have been easier and faster to do it ourselves. I had to constantly supervise. More than once I heard myself shout, “No running with scissors!”

But the real purpose of having children do chores is to make them feel like they are a contributing member of the family. Studies have shown that children who feel important, like they matter in this big impersonal world, have higher self-esteem.

And sometimes they will surprise you with the enthusiasm with which they approach the chores. You might even learn something from them.

But unless you are supremely flexible, don’t try to copy their enthusiastic cartwheeling. Trust me on this. Ouch.