Having a weekend without kids, then having them come back into their normal routine, it's an eye-opening experience. They sure play a lot, and I sure work a lot. It's out of balance, and it has to stop. So today I'm devising a plan where others will contribute to the care and maintenance of the home front. What's tough is that I resist having my kids help like nobody's business (residual stuff from childhood, probably could be addressed with thousands of dollars of therapy, but I think this way will work). So the new way is morning and evening jobs, which will be assigned on paper. If you have morning jobs, you are responsible for feeding dogs, giving them water, emptying dishwasher, and giving Shadow her prozac. If you have evening jobs, you are responsible for picking up the backyard (including all towels, goggles, pool toys left where they shouldn't be) and the garage (which will probably include wrappers, juice boxes, and other assorted crap). Plus they still have normal picking up room and putting away laundry duties.
Ok, so I hate typing this, because I feel like any normal good mom would already be having her kids do this. So I'm outing myself -- yuck. But I'm hoping the accountability provided by writing it down will help me to carry it out. It's my hatred of conflict that causes me to "just do it" which is why I was picking up poop and mowing lawns in 109 degree heat. And the crazy truth is that my older son is the BEST kid when it comes to doing what he's asked to do, and Tucker's not bad either -- it's ME that resists.
So look out everyone -- there's a new sheriff in town, and she's long overdue!
6 comments:
I'm bad about it too. My husband fusses at me all the time for not getting the kids to do enough. I just get sick of following up with them...I would make a terrible manager!
Good. You're going to need the time for marathon training...
Good for you! And you saved thousands of dollars in the process.
Good for you and good for them. You're teaching them valuable life lessons with this approach.
These "jobs" are good learning tools because, in the real world, you need to do things to make a living. Don't feel bad. Sometimes I think it's easier to do it all myself, but they need to learn. I have two adult aged kids at home and they have their things they have to do at home in addition to their "jobs" of attending college... Take care. Your a great mom!
You go girl! I end up doing things myself because it is just so much easier. Then I am overworked and stressed all the time.
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