Teaching Children to do the "Hard Things"

Growing up, my mother would start every Saturday morning with a few hours of chores. As a kid it felt brutal. One friend recalls her mother telling me, "I like your home; it is so big and beautiful." I answered, "You might not think so if you had to clean it."

Chores like cleaning the kitchen & grocery shopping are easier for me without kids. But once I became a mother of 3 in our blended family, "doing it myself" was no longer an option. Cleaning the kitchen with all three of them feels like I'm continuously putting out small fires. Fortunately there seems to be a few less "fires" each time. What techniques do you use to teach your children how to do the "hard things"?