Chores

I’ve been teasing my niece about her recent enthusiasm for cleaning and organizing her home. It’s a little early for spring cleaning, and I’m not the best housekeeper to begin with. I’ve found that after years of living in the country I have developed a tolerance for dust, spider webs, and dirty floors. Oh, I vacuum and dust and occasionally even mop, but most of it is useless. The next day the wind blows the dust back in and the spiders work harder than ever to decorate my ceilings. 

It is ironic that I ran across this little gem yesterday! My mother must have read it because she was adamant about everyone in our family having “chores” to do. I washed dishes when I had to stand on a chair to do so!

The Caddo Herald

July 12, 1946

Fun and Home Training Fine if Parents are Wise

If Mom and Dad are good salesmen, Johnny and Mary can experience a summer at home combining fun with training; that is the advice of Dr. Alice Sowers, director of Family Life Institute at the University of Oklahoma.

Boundless energies are turned home once school is finished and then parents must direct a program to replace school, athletics and extracurricular activities.

None or few of winter time-consumers carry through summer, the advisor said. The wise parent, a good salesman and good executive, should be able to marshal this tremendous force of enthusiasm and energy for the general good of the entire family.

Parents must do a good job of salesmanship if they succeed in selling children the idea of helping around the house and yard. While they are relieving mother and Dad of some work, they are learning something about the job itself. They are acquiring habits of industry and thrift. They are learning to budget their time and are becoming good citizens of the home. And the chores need not become drudgery. Miss Sowers suggests that the jobs be varied so that one week it is dishwashing, next dusting, another marketing and meal planning.

And the chores of mending, of cooking, changing linens and the laundry will help the future. She decries the number of girls who plan to marry who know little of housekeeping.

House and yard duties will afford time for conversations between parents and children. It is a time to become the better acquainted.

Miss Sowers issues a parting warning: success lies with Mom and Dad. 

 

 

Comments

[Megan]

I hope I fall in the "good salesman category." Jocelyn has proudly--since her 5th birthday-been making her bed "by myself" every morning and even bemoans it when she forgets. Each thing I ask her to do is "no problem." She has begun helping unload the dishes, she regularly sets the table, she brings her dirty clothes downstairs and then brings her clean clothes back up in her basket--and has started putting it away!!---she loses enthusiasm for cleaning up toys unless someone helps her do it but she's really good at getting snacks for herself or her brother.

Tyler's chores? Okay, he has his good days and his bad days, but mostly good: potty boxes, cat food and water changing, making beds, bringing dirty clothes down and clean clothes up, dusting weekly, emptying garbage cans, unloading the dishwasher, helping with toys where ever they are strewn, clearing the table after meals and even finding certain things at the grocery store that match the coupons (on the same aisle that we're on.)

Summertime finds more chores: weeding, hauling prunings, cleaning up yard toys, harvesting veggies.

My kids understand that we clean for two main reasons:

1. Taking care of our things make them last longer. For example: we still have almost every single toy we've ever purchased so Noah plays with the same toys Tyler did as a toddler.
2. It takes everybody's help to get the jobs done so we can do fun stuff. In addition to going to school and learning (their #1 job), work at home is also part of what it takes to be a member of the family. Job's done? Playtime!!!!