When Steve and I were pregnant with our first born, Paul, I can vividly remember one of our oldest friends, Kevin Gene telling us about the little girls on the Reservation who could do laundry and help with the baking and simple cleaning by the age of five. I remember being slightly put off by that image as Kevin described small children – little boys and girls who knew how to work hard side by side wth their parents by the age of five. Who not only began attending school at this age, but also had already begun learning their gender roles in their society.

Even though as a Latter Day Saint (or Mormon) I had always been brought up with an idea as a woman, what my role was in the home, it had never really been laid out before me. This is because of a variety of reasons which I do not blame my own parents for. The model was there – my parents had their own garden and I was encouraged and often did get dragged to the garden to help pick the corn, and squash, and peas, they did can their own fruits and veggies, my Mamau did keep the home and cook the meals – so my model was there, I simply never took the time to learn it.

I was primarly at home with my children for the first four years, and then was working in some capacity – either part or full time outside of the home for almost the last two years. Now, back in the home full time again, I am concerned about my children being able to work side by side with Steve and myself. In a world that caters to children, being outside of the home in a working environment and seeing parents of other children – I have realized how important it is to instill these hard working values. Of course, children are princes and princesses in the eyes of God. As joint heirs to all that the Father has in Christ, their Father is a King and therefor, they must certainly should be treasured as the Princes and Princesses that they are, the treasures from heaven that we are entrusted with. However, I think in this world of materialism, that the line between knowing our children’s great and priceless value in God has been crossed with treating them as real royality.

I know that when I tell my Anya, that she is a Princess – that I can identify who she is – a daughter of the Most High God, known intimatly by Jesus and the Father. But how to rear an Esther, a Proverbs 31 daughter, a woman who seeks God, who seeks to serve others and not herself first? A woman by the well? At the tender age of four, how do I teach her to work side by side with me when I never took the time as a child to learn how to run a home myself?

I suppose over the next few weeks, I will be investigating this. It is important to me that my children become God’s children – skeptic that I am, at the end of the day – I want my children to understand that God’s ways are perfect. Man’s ways are not. This is something that being Mormon is pretty much known for – little girls and little boys being reared to be Priesthood and Relief Society from the getgo. And to me, that’s something good – knowing your role in God’s plan from a young age and being prepared to follow it. Parents are supposed to prepare their children from a young age to follow the Lord so that when they are older, they do not depart from Him.