chores

Okay, time for a reality check. Here is a list of chores that either one of our children can do reasonably well with little to no supervision.

• clear table
• unload dishwasher onto counter
• move dishes from counter to correct shelves - Dandy only, Chickadee is too short
• load dishwasher - Chickadee's load job needs a wee bit of rearranging
• wipe off counters
• vacuum or sweep kitchen floor
• empty kitchen garbage/replace bag - Dandy only
• deliver dirty laundry to laundry room
  
• sort and fold laundry
• deliver laundry to rooms
• vacuum
• wet clean floors
• empty wastebaskets
• help carry in groceries
• put away most groceries
• straighten living room
  
• clean litter boxes
• clean up bunny area
• sweep porches
• clean playroom
• empty weed-buckets into little wheelbarrow
• dump wheelbarrow
• clean bathrooms with Tough & Tender cleaning solution - Dandy only (I run around with a bleach solution after he is finished).
• edited to add these ones
• make bed every morning
• make clothes "nice" - hang up or put away
• corral loose goats -Dandy only
  

How did this happen? They came to us with pretty good work ethics. Then I started staking my tomatoes.

Well, your child is similar to a tomato. Without your constant good parenting, he'll grow wild and end up rotten. You need to be his stake. You need to be constantly keeping him with you as he grows, and training him, just as the tomato stake trains the tomato plant, to be as you want him to be - as you know he will need to be later in life. You need to keep him with you and work with him constantly, training him to become a godly child and eventually a godly adult.

When either child is peevish or if they aren't playing nicely together, I clamp one of them to my side and they do whatever I am doing, which is usually chores. So we do chores together, they learn, and yucky attitudes get nipped in the bud.

What's really nice about this is that we can all power-down and work and then do something fun together.

I do wonder though, what is normal for other families. Chickadee is turning 6 this summer; Dandy is 7. What do your little ones do?

edited to add
I've been reading Confessions of a Pioneer Woman, (thanks Sandy) whom I suspect would chortle at all this, as I think her kids are roping, branding, and more (scroll down to the part where the 7-year old is driving) as soon as they start to walk.

:: this post is included in the May 21 edition of the Carnival of Family Life.