Teamwork

When the boys were little we used to watch a programme which had a little song that went like this:

"What's going to work? Teamwork!"

We used to sing this song around the house a lot. I remember their cute little voices cheerfully singing about teamwork.

And then teamwork stopped working. It became competition. Who can do the best, be the best make the best, finish first? The important things in life were about 'me' and not about 'us'.

Slowly, slowly, we are bringing them back round to the idea of teamwork. It comes as a surprise to their inflated testosterone fuelled egos, but sometimes they can't actually complete something by themselves. Sometimes they need help from someone else. We are trying to teach that to ask for help shows strength and wisdom, not weakness.

This morning, teamwork was in full swing while Toby and Max made scones together. When they asked if they could bake, I sighed and desperately tried to find a reason to say no. Unfortunately I couldn't think of one. The deal was they had to work together as a team, and clear up all the mess afterwards. And they succeeded. They'd never made scones before and followed the recipe on the iPad (you've got to get a screen in there somewhere). I did not help at all. They spoke kindly to one another and even offered to do the washing up. I was amazed. Here is the result of their teamwork, which we will be enjoying after our lunch.