Busywork

Our family volunteered at the VOA Thrift Store last night as part of a Hillcrest group. The store is an impressive place with lots of items priced to move. The store accomplishes two things- it brings in some income to support its staff and programming while also providing the under-resourced in Sioux Falls some excellent deals on clothing, household items, furniture and much more.

When we serve at the store, the person in charge at the store is good about giving the adults something meaningful to do but it can be a bit of a challenge to find stuff for the kids to do. So T and I will take turns finding something helpful our kids can do- sweeping, vacuuming the kids' area, picking up teash, etc. Last night they took turn at those tasks while T hung jeans (a lot of jeans!) on clothing racks.

Some might say that what we did (especially what my kids did) was just busywork- tasks that need to be done, but by doing them doesn't mean you accomplished something, because those tasks will have to be done the next day, and the next day, and the next day. And there's some truth to this- sometimes tasks are repetitive like that.

But even though it's busywork, those tasks are important for my children as they learn about doing something for someone else. Those tasks are also important for the store, because even though it's a second hand store, it's still selling stuff and cleaner floors help sell more stuff than dirty floors do.

And hopefully one day, my kids won't just serve, but be able to walk into a place and not wait for someone to tell them what to do, but be able to start something on their own.