Working Mums: Get your kids in the boardroom!

My kids love being involved in my business - so should we all let them help a bit?

I recently read a post from More Than Mummies about getting your children involved in testing your products..and it got me thinking….

Do we all need to get our kids into our jobs and businesses; mums, dads, grandma’s, everyone – our kids opinions matter to us all, don’t they?

Kiddies in the chore charts boardroom

My kids have been in there with their sleeves rolled up from day one. They were the inspiration, they are the testors, and they are my toughest critics.

For example, Stuntboy informed me what backgrounds would work when creating reward charts for boys, and Chatterbox was adamant that we would be missing a trick without princess reward charts high on my priority list.

I appreciate KiddyCharts Chore Charts are in a relatively unique position though; this business is solely focused on producing products which are targeted to children, so my kids opinions are actually something that really, really matters.

However, isn’t it important that we all involve our kids in what we do as much as we can, regardless of whether their opinion is actually going to make any significant difference to the product or service we provide?

So, I try and get my kids opinion on what I am up to, and I think it has had a profound effect on them over the last year or so.

Why bother to involve kids in your business?

Personally, I think it has helped my kids:

• Build their confidence; they aren’t afraid to tell me what I am doing is wrong both within my business and in life generally. Not a bad skill to have, though sometimes I don’t listen of course!
• Develop problem solving skills; the problems I bring them are small, like what picture I am going to use to represent a particular behaviour, but we all have to start somewhere
• Feel they really belong; both within the business and within the family because their voice counts
• Engage in conversation with my; they often ask what I was doing for KiddyCharts today while they were at school, and I am not sure they would care if I didn’t involve them as much as I do
• Realise that work does bring with it financial rewards, but it can also be fun and rewarding, and these are actually two of the most important reasons for doing it
• Have fun; they cut my reward chart behaviour stars up and made a game with them. That wasn’t on my list of things to do, but quite frankly, who cares!

So no matter how small their input is, from something as simple as deciding what’s best for mummy to wear to that important meeting, to giving an opinion on a new logo or taste testing a new biscuit recipe, involve your kids when you can.

They really will thank you for it.

Helen

Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!

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