I once heard a talk by the late H. Stephen Glenn, co-author of Raising Self-Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World, in which he told a story of how he and his 6-year-old son worked together welding a tie rod on their tractor.  When they were finished, his son said, “Thanks, Dad, for letting me help you fix the tractor.” Glenn responded that he could not have completed the task without his son.  He needed two people to do the job.  After this experience, his son would often present his father with a list of all the two-person jobs that had to be done around their ranch. In naming the concept of a two-person job, Glenn taught his son that “when a job takes two, I am sometimes equal to my father, and that makes me very significant.”

When a person experiences success while working with another, that experience takes on an aura of meaning and purpose. Incorporating two-person jobs into your home provides opportunities for children to practice the crucial life skills of planning, negotiation, compromise, listening, and responsibility.