Just shoveling snow

Just a little over three years ago, we saw a small shovel in a store and thought our two year old daughter would like to help Daddy shovel snow. It was super cute, and she always managed to push a tiny bit of snow around, but more than that, it was something that she looked forward to whenever Daddy went out to clear the driveway.

I would always hear about it if I was too fast doing my work and finished before she was able to join me.

More recently, it has been a good way to motivate her to eat all of her breakfast quickly, so that she could get the coat and mittens and boots on and join Daddy for some fun clearing the driveway.

More often than not, she was as much harm as help. She would trample some of the snow that I hadn't cleared yet, and I would have to scrape the driveway a few times in those spots to get all of the compacted snow up.

That was fine with me. I didn't mind a minute or two of extra work if that meant she was having fun just being there with me. Then something happened last week that I didn't expect.

We had a pretty heavy storm and ten or so inches had accumulated, so my work was harder than usual. I was only half-way down the driveway when she came out in her gear ready to do some shoveling. The snow was still coming down, so the circumstances weren't all that fun to work in. I asked her to please work on the sidewalk while I worked on the driveway.

I went back to work and I let her work on her area. I figured the usual pattern would repeat. She would work for two or three minutes, then decide it was time to play in the snow instead. By the time I got finished with the driveway and went to inspect her progress, I was shocked to see that she had done the majority of the front walk to the porch.

This was not light fluffy snow either. Much of the snow had melted to slush, but she persisted in her efforts until she turned around a moment after I had taken her picture. She informed me that she was tired of shoveling, so she was going to play in the snow now. I talked her into helping me do the last bit of the front walk because I wanted her to have the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing a difficult task.

It was so much fun to tell Mommy about the big job she had done with only a little help from Daddy. It also changed my perspective on other things she likes to do with me. I know she loves to join me washing the cars. Maybe sometime soon she'll surprise me by getting more of the soapy water on the car than on herself.