Stop Babying Your Missionary (or any child for that matter)

I love this article. We get a paper called the Mormon Times delivered with our weekly Church News and this article was in it so I thought I'd share it will all you mothers out there. It was specifically aimed toward male missionaries but it is a valid arguement for any child to make them be a functioning (and independent) member of society. I won't bore you with the entire article just the points I thought were awesome. "The best way to help prepare a young man for a mission is to stop doing his laundry, cooking for him, and cleaning up after him. So says a Mormon cleaning guru who's built a successful career on correct cleaning principles. Don Aslett, a former bishop in the Marsh Creek Ward in the McCammon Idaho Stake - who at 74 has more than 50 years of experience teaching people to clean efficiently and well - said it does missionaries no good to be babied. One year before their mission, quit doing their laundry, cooking their meals, clipping their toenails. Cease all tending to their every need. The worst thing you can do is protect and insulate them. Change the meaning of CTR to Clean The Room. Those who keep their physical house in order keep their spiritual houses in order. The Holy Ghost doesn't want to stick around where it's messy and dirty, there's a huge carryover from clean to conduct. If you're big enough to make the mess, you're big enough to clean it up. If they are taught from childhood to be responsible for themselves, they have much more successful missions and marriages. Teach your children that "I am responsible for my own outcome in spirituality, finances, health, everything"". The only thing I don't agree with is the timing. I was responsible for doing my own laundry once I hit high school, and my daughters who are 10 and 7 help me cook dinner fairly often. My oldest can make a dinner meal from start to finish on her own. So I feel all the laundry, cooking, and cleaning needs to stop WAY before they hit missionary age.