With five kids, four and under there is one question I get asked over and over again: How do you work around the house with little ones underfoot?

I am very familiar with this struggle! With so many littles, my house is in constant chaos. I love it most of the time, but it is a struggle sometimes to get things done like cooking, cleaning, and mopping!

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Since my oldest are only 4, I have a few things I can share that we've done. But I wanted to reach out to some of my friends and get their advice on what they do. So I've got advice from several ladies for you today!

Before we get to the practical advice: 

Before I jump into my practical advice, I do want to share one thing to keep in mind: When thinking through our kids involvement in our home we need to remember our #1: to teach them about and share the Gospel with them.

My #1 goal within my home is to point them back to Christ. To mold them and shape them and at the end of the day, direct them back to CHRIST. And so that needs to shape how and what we do within our home, especially when it comes to how we interact with these little ones that God has given into our care. 

It's really really easy to view my kids as distractions. They are distracting me from getting things done around the house, distracting me from getting dinner on the table, etc. It's easy to get frustrated and overwhelmed with them when I'm trying to get MY to-do list done! 

And yet, these little people within my home are not distractions. They are in fact, my biggest mission field, the priority which God has given me for this season. They should be the largest focus of my time and energy.

Yes, the cooking and the cleaning NEED to get done. But if we can remember the all important task of raising our children in the Lord, the blessing that God has given us in raising this next generation, then it's far easier to stop viewing our children as distractions to our housework, but rather the purpose for our housework.

If you struggle with this like I do, I recommend you go back and listen to episode #69 of the podcast: Eliminating Distractions in Your Homemaking.  

What I currently do with my littles: 

As many of these ladies are going to share below, one great thing is to involve your kids in the housework. I love to try to involve my kids, have them help in the kitchen, and to help do simple things alongside me. Their favorite tasks involve trying to help sweep and unload the dishwasher. I also love giving them outdoor brooms and letting them sweep the sidewalk out front and our back deck. (This keeps the 2 year olds entertained for a while!)

So I'm going to leave the involving kids suggestions to the other ladies because they all have some GREAT advice. Because one thing I want to address: Sometimes I have to train my kids to just stay out of the way. I don't mean that to come across harsh. But with the concentration of littles I have, if I involved them in every single chore, I would never ever get anything done. 

So there are times when they know it's play time and mom is working in the kitchen or cleaning. Often before dinner, it's play time outside or in their room. They can come and talk to me and hang around the kitchen if they want or get involved if they ask, but it's not time to tear through the kitchen, run around in the living room, etc. And with four littles boys all so young, that's often all they want to do at that time of day ;)