Up the Ante

Your rules are really beginning to annoy me. –Escape from LA

Lately, the kids have been getting their work done really fast. So we, the adults, decided to up the ante.

Keep in mind that their housework previously included the following only:

• pickup bedroom, make bed
• pickup/vacuum/mop, etc. main room (living room, kitchen, dining room, hall-stairs-entrance way) (only mop/vacuum three times a week, sometimes two)
• put clean clothes away
• clean kitchen after dinner (dishes, counter tops, stove top, put leftovers away)
• clean bathroom once a week
• clean kitty litter box, pickup after dog

Sometimes we’ll throw in a little yard work every other week (as needed).

When I was their age I had to do the following either every day or at least once a week:

• pickup/vacuum/mop, etc main room
• pickup/vacuum bedroom, make bed
• clean kitchen after dinner
• pull two bags of weeds in the yard during the fall/winter, four bags during spring/summer
• wash walls/windows/washboards every weekend
• polish furniture every weekend (we had a LOT of wooden furniture, including a baby grand piano and intricately carved furniture from before they had kids)
• laundry (wash, dry, sort, fold, put away)
• rake leaves, any other yardwork as needed
• clean out pet cages/litter box/clean up backyard from dogs
• clean out fridge and under stove top, etc. once a month

It was a lot because we had a big house, a large yard and eight kids. Now we live in a duplex with a small yard and pretty stuffed quarters (we are going to move…eventually…) and only have three kids with a handful of adults.

When it was decided to up the housework as they are old enough to handle it now they were not happy. They must now do what they did before and wash the walls by the end of Saturday. They have informed us that there might be a revolt. The would-be revolutionaries were informed that any revolt would include loss of electronic privileges as they’d be ‘locked down.’

It’s going to be more fun when we get them to start washing windows and polishing/washing furniture in a few weeks.

When informed of a change of pace

How red you looked in the face.

At least you didn’t throw a fit

There was something positive that came from it.

 

This post is brought to you by the Light and Shade Challenge.