Right now I am planning, for the first time, a pity party. It will be complete with cake and ice cream, lots of grumbling and sulking. As you know we are all home on Spring Break. Luckily, we had a nice day on Sunday and a nice day today. So we spent both days, outside doing yard work, and getting the place ready for Spring. It is shaping up nice, if I do say so myself.
The pity party is for Matt and Ellie, but especially Matt. They both did a great job helping us on Sunday. It all started this morning, when he had to help clean up the kitchen. He was shocked and appalled that the dishes that did not fit into the dishwasher actually had to be washed, and Mickey decided that he and Ellie were going to do it before I woke up. Ellie washed and Matt dried. He moaned, he complained, it is NOT fair to make him help with the dishes. So, my lovely partner told him that we would no longer be using the dishwasher, and he could wash all the dishes from now on. Hehehe.
Then we get to the yardwork. We have a very small inner backyard, where the pool is. Todays job was to rake the leftover leaves out from around the pool. He moaned, he grumbled, he wanted to play with his friends. Mind you his friends are not even outside yet. Everytime Mickey gave Ellie a direction she burst into tears (Ellie that is). Finally, Mickey had enough and sent them to the outer yard, and told them to just play. Ellie happily jumped on the trampoline, swung on the swing, and even attempted the pogo stick, all the while singing and chattering. Matt stratigically place himself so we could watch him sulk, and sulk, and sulk. Of course we ignored him, which made him come closer so we would be sure to see how pitiful he was. That didn't work, so he stood in the middle of the yard shivering, hoping that I would tell him to go in the house. By now, I had pulled off my jacket from working, and Ellie was asking to take off hers.
He is now standing in the very back of the yard, trying to convince Ellie that we are so mean, as she flits around him and happily climbs a tree. We are the only parents in the world that ask their children to do extra work along with them, on Spring Break. It is bad enough that he has to clean his room, take his clothes to the laundry room, fold his clean clothes, take out the trash, and clean the dog poop. Those are his ONLY chores. He honestly believes that NONE of his friends or any other 11 year old in the world is asked to do soooooo much.
So now we are all inside. Matt is up in his room after being sent to bed. Poor baby, must be so tired from drying dishes this morning! A nap will do him good.
If anyone would like to let Matt and Ellie know how bad they have it, I will give them your reply tonight at the pity party. I might even take pictures!
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Wow! You have lucky kids. Mine are younger than yours (10, 8, 4 and 1) and they have way more chores than Matt does. 10 year old has the following chores:
ReplyDelete--cleans his room,
--takes his clothes to laundry room,
--SORTS all 4 kids laundry,
--folds and puts away his clothes.
EVERY DAY before school he
--empties all the trash cans in the house and takes trash out to the trash bin.
--sorts recycling and takes it to the recycle bin
On Mondays He takes the trash and recycling out to the street for our family and for the older lady down the street and then brings the trashcans back in when they have been picked up.
He doesn't get an allowance for this.
SATURDAY mornings we have "family chore time" which the kids all love because the faster we work the more fun we have for the rest of the weekend. If they don't work, we don't plan anything fun. 10 year old sweeps 2 bedrooms, upstairs hallway, and stairs. He cleans kids' bathroom shower, sink and toilet. He wipes the outside of the kitchen trashcan and handwashes any clothes that he messed up (grass stains, dirt stains, pee, etc.)Then he helps with whatever our WHOLE family chore is so we can finish quickly and have time for fun for the rest of Saturday and Sunday.
I cannot believe your kids have so little work to do. You moms must work really hard to do all those chores they don't help with!
Oops I forgot. All the kids make their beds every single morning and if they forget or don't do it, they get to make everybody's bed the next day!
ReplyDeleteMy 4 year old makes his bed, gets his clothes ready for school, handwashes his peed on clothes when he has an accident, brings his laundry downstairs, takes the sheets off his bed and puts new ones on every week, unloads the dishwasher, feeds our oldest cat twice each day and has to stand guard so the rest of the cats don't steal her food.
Do your kids do all that?
Thanks Dia! I will be sure to share your kids list of chores with Matt and Ellie. They do have to clean their bathroom a few times a week. I hate to even step foot in there, as it is usually a bio-hazard.
ReplyDeleteI often add chores like loading or unloading the dishwasher, but have never had them wash dishes by hand, because I'd rather do it. We just started having them change their own sheets, but only Ellie has been responsible about it. I really like the rule about making your bed in the AM, and if you don't, you make all the beds the next day! I may even add cleaning the entire room to that. Matt lost all of the toys in his room on the first day of Spring Break, because he thought (I guess) I was kidding about getting the lego pieces picked up and out from under the furniture. I'm not sure why exactly we thought he would be able to handle furniture and more toys in his room!
J is 8 and here's her chores:
ReplyDeleteDaily:
Make her bed
Do the dishes after every meal, wipe the counters/table, take out the trash.
Make my bed (paying job) ;-)
Monday's she does her sheets (washes, dries and puts them back on)
Wednesday is laundry day and she folds all the laundry.
Saturday:
Cleans her bathroom
Dusts
Vacuums
Sweeps the garage and deck
Washes out any questionable underwear/rinses and hangs up to dry.
Any toys/clothes/etc left out at bedtime and not in their proper place is put in the trash. It took a week but she NEVER leaves anything out anymore. Usually her room is the tidiest in the house.
J did the handwashing for complaining about dishwasher thing too. No complaining anymore.
Tell Matt if it's too hard at your house he can move on down to mine. hee hee
Thanks Lisa,
ReplyDeleteYour comment came right on time. Matt is still washing the dishes, it is just over an hour. If his lips hang any lower they are going to touch the dishwater! He is pretty sure he doesn't want to do all of J's chores. I love the tossing everything away that is not cleaned up by bedtime. That will totally work for Matt, but Ellie would rather toss her stuff than clean it up!!!