The bait and switch

It seems that our children's desire to help comes with some sort of weird inverse relationship to their actual ability to help.

For instance, our son. When we moved into this house, he was so excited about helping out with chores like sweeping, dusting, mopping and doing the dishes. In fact, I remember some house guests commenting on how excited they were that our three year old was standing on a stool at the sink working on the dirty dishes.

Now that he is nine, he has no interest whatever in any of the aforementioned activities.

Somehow, I do not think this phenomenon is uniquely his.