Thursday, February 2, 2012

Before it's too late

I dropped the ball on raising my children accustom to doing chores. No chore charts. No lists. No Saturday morning tasks.

In my culture, the Mommy does everything. My Mom did everything. So did my grandmother. That's what Mommy's do. Mom is always the 1st person in the kitchen, and the last one in the kitchen. Mom always stays up late and watches television while she folds and presses the laundry. Mom does the grocery shopping, and Mom loved to see vacuum marks in the carpet.

I have 4 kids. (not counting my husband). My house is busy, and often messy. It's something I try to accept..to no avail. Today I decided to ask the kids for help. The moaning and groaning and sudden pain in my sons legs.....I get that. He's 6 years old. He actually just wanted to do different chores than the ones I picked for him. My stepson was happy to help. I did not birth, or raise him.

My beautiful daughter Amber. It wasn't that she complained that she had to do the chores, she was just in some type of shock that I asked her to do them. She looked at me as if I just escaped from the insane asylum. She may have even looked over her shoulder to see if I was speaking to someone else.

I really want to raise my girls to be good stewarts of their home and great caregivers to their families. I told Amber that she is going to have to do all these things as an adult, and that they will be her responsibility. Right now she's not jumping to rise to the occassion. I was Amber once. When I was finally on my own, I had to start to do it all. But all those years of being with my mother...I watched. I knew. I made it. And she will too. However, chores need to be set in place, and should've been a long time ago.

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