Day 1 of the Experiment

Adorable little things, and yet they have the power to put me over the edge. Saturday is chore day (among smaller chores during the week). At 12:00 when they were still not done, and after much nagging, I finally decided that I'd had it.

I told the kids, "Fine, you don't want to help out with the family chores, neither do I. Next week, I'm only doing the chores that I want to do. That means, Maddie and Sam, I don't like driving you to school; so you can walk. And I don't like packing lunches; so all of you can pack your own."

Their eyes got bigger and Cara meekly said, "What about dinner?"

"I'm not cooking it," I responded. "And I don't like folding laundry, so I'll just dump it on the floor and you can get your own, fold it, and put it away."

Sam realized that he had a Scout project this week. He had to write down a menu last week for our family meals. The girls were disgusted as he had put fish on there twice. Not to mention mad that Sam thought he could dictate the family menu. "What about Scouts?" he asked. I let him know that he would be making it.

So yesterday was the first day. The kids packed their lunches the night before. The bread was gone, so Maddie pulled out the end to make her sandwich. I'm not sure what she was going to eat, since she pulls the crust off all her sandwiches. I kindly pointed out that their was bread in the freezer. Sam's sandwich was all meat. Cara got hers right (although I felt a little bad because Cara does her chores and she had to suffer with the rest).

Maddie and Sam walked to school. When everyone was home, I finished a batch of laundry and put it on the floor. I taught Max and George how to fold their own. Max thought the first batch was a game and didn't like the second batch. I told Sam to fold his laundry and he said, "Oh, can't I just stuff them into my drawyer?"

Sam and Cara made dinner last night. Of course, it was more work for me because they called me in for help every two minutes.

That was day one. I'm more exhausted then I usually am. Teaching kids to work is much more difficult then doing it myself.