Collins Country

I learned something today.

In the past, I have nagged my children to do chores and gotten very irritated when they didn’t do them, or if they did them poorly.  Finally, I just gave up.  Other than little things like emptying the dish drainer or vacuuming the living room, I just quit asking them to do anything.

I don’t actually mind doing housework most of the time, but we have some really big projects in the yard and house.  I made up a list of all the tasks they were capable of doing and estimated the time for each task.  Then I divided them up by days so that no one teenager has to do more than one hour of work on these per day.

This morning, I woke them up nicely and told them they had one hour to eat breakfast, get dressed and finish waking up.  I proceeded to give them a  (short) list of jobs and the time it would take.  Surprisingly, only my nephew groaned, so that was a new experience.

When the time came, they very agreeably carried ten 100-pound paving stones across the yard and weeded all the planters in the front yard (that was a bigger job than I realized)!  They did a good job and did extra work.  My hedge got trimmed and the peach tree (which only has 2 peaches on it LOL) got trimmed a bit, too.

I think they enjoyed their hiatus from chores.  I think they enjoyed not being yelled at and nagged.  I think enough time went by that even they knew anything I asked was reasonable to expect after such a long break! LOL They all know what their week is like, what I expect each morning, and I think that helps, too!

Today, I think they actually enjoyed their labors.  Our bodies are made for working hard, playing hard, and getting the most out of life!  My children gained satisfaction in using their muscles and a job well done!

Part of developing children into mature, productive, caring adults is to assign them plenty of chores and responsibility.   However, I wouldn’t work for a boss that expected me to be on call whenever a job needed to be done.  I would not tolerate an employer who yelled at me daily when I made a mistake.  Why did I expect my kids to?

Lists good . . . LONG lists, bad . . . lol

{ 08:26 , Monday, July 10, 2006 } { Posted by Jonash2004 }

Hi! I like this post. This was one of the things I struggled with growing up - I think I blogged about my mom's never-ending lists. =) You would get close to finishing up, and she'd add more! Or it would be so long, you knew you couldn't finish in two or three days. Very discouraging. It's only been in the last year that I have begun to make lists myself - for along time I hated them. (Then I began to forget things, hahaha!) Then I learned that a list isn't necessarily a discouraging thing if used properly. ;)
Free time was a big thing to me growing up, on the farm we worked very hard, but I was constantly asking "If I get this, this & this done, can I have 30 minutes or an hour?" Time to use in whatever one wished was a valuable thing, and we didn't always get it.
Thank you for all of your comments on my blog!!! :)
Ashley