All Hands on Deck!

 

I haven't had to use this expression before with a literal context. However this weekend, we needed all hands on the back decks. This picture was taken on Father's Day, as my husband was including all four boys in completing the hand rail and sides to our newest deck (back door landing). A great learning experience  Yesterday we all helped paint this deck and our pool deck with stain (hopefully for the last time due to our purchase of lifetime deck stain ~yeah, we'll see!).

Two very different decks

Two very different tasks

Two very different parents

Six pairs of hands

My learning:

1. The assignment of task to helper is critical. At one point I had my youngest son right next to me so that I could keep an eye on him, knowing full well that I probably have to follow up and check on his work. Having him in charge of a small section that was not a very visible section was strategic to having him feel like he was doing as good a job as the rest, but put my mind to rest if he really messed up. I call this knowing his painting level of expertise (matching his talents to the task).
2. Some people just need their own paint tray: Michael would not share the same paint tray as Nick. For no real reason - he just wanted his own tray. Not having his own tray caused him to pout, make an unnecessary fuss and take time away from all the other helpers.This is where you need to pick your battles. Instead of forcing him to share a paint tray, we gave him his own tray. 
3. Too many hands on one deck causes chaos: Just like the too many cooks in the kitchen saying. At one point all 6 of us were painting the small back door deck.   Two on the platform, one on the stairs, and three around. It was just too much ! People needed to be reassigned to other tasks (like cleaning up, or going inside to take a shower). No one wanted to be reassigned however, because the painting job somehow held the highest importance. Brian carefully assigned tasks to the boys one by one - each having an equal sense of priority, while I remained doing 'quality check' and touch ups. With many decks and many different jobs everyone didn't have to work on the same assignment. It became unproductive. And let's face it - no need for everyone to be out in 90 degree weather if you don't have to!