I learned it the hard way and later than usual that doing things with your kids and involving them in the everyday tasks is incredibly fun – and terrifying, time-consuming, hectic, and worrying but fun. I am a mother of 2 kids, one is 2 years old and the other one still hasn’t completed a full rotation around the Sun. So basically, our firstborn is right now in the independence phase where she would like to do as many things as possible on her own. Which is amazing, who wouldn’t appreciate that right? But this comes with a cost. The cost is patience, calm, deep breathing, and strong willpower. As a mother, you often lack these, especially when you need them the most. 😛

Anyway, summer is soon here and I wanted to clean our winter balcony and prepare it with plants. It has been months since I planned to do that promising myself every weekend and writing it in bold letters on our fridge as a TODO but the right time never came. Because there is no right time with the kids. Either the time is now or never. So yesterday, I told myself if I wouldn’t do it this week, another week will pass and the plants will die waiting in the small egg-sized holder. And since our daughter was home, I decided to do it with her. We live in an apartment with a Balkonchen (a small balcony). For those who don’t know German, -chen is a suffix you apply to refer to a smaller version of something. So when I say, a tiny balcony, I literally mean a tiny balcony.

Having pots and sand, some full with sand and some empty, some stones that we keep collecting on our hiking adventures, a birdhouse, a metal shelf, a bio-bin (welcome to Germany), and a huge sand packet was no more than an adventure for our daughter when she was told that we’re going to clean the balcony. The moment she heard she was allowed to come with me she literally, almost drifting, ran towards the balcony and stood at the door waiting for me to open the gates to her new uncharted territory. For me, there were two tasks, to clean the balcony, and to keep her playing in a way that doesn’t interrupt my first task. Surprisingly, things went well. She cooperated even helped me at times, watered some plants, checked out birds and plants in the vicinity, and mostly sang her songs that we do not usually understand.

It took us an hour but the balcony was clean. The dirt and old pots were thrown and she was delighted to have lent a helping hand to her mother in accomplishing a huge task in the household. Today, she received her own garden gloves so that she can touch the soil and fill some pots with it. We ended up potting 6 cherry tomato plants, and 2 chili plants and cleaning the other pots for the plants we will buy in the next few days. This took almost 2 hours and she even got a tiny bit hurt while coming inside – remember Balkonchen? But we enjoyed ourselves and had fun working together. It was a great time to bond with her and add yet another memory in our lives that she might not remember but I will, forever.