Chores

Skippy Mom wrote a post about chores that got me reminiscing about my childhood, something I do more and more since realizing in about 6 months I'm going to be a dad.

Growing up we had weekly and daily chores. Daily chores consisted of dishes (we didn't use the dishwasher), sweeping and wiping the table. Being that I have 2 brothers, we'd rotate through them. For awhile it was daily and then eventually went to a weekly rotation.

Then there were Saturday mornings. While most kids were watching Saturday Morning Cartoons, we who had no cable, did chores. Now I'm sure most kids have to do chores, but that didn't make it any easier, especially since I don't think my friends actually did. As far back as I can remember (maybe 8 or 9), this was a weekly occurance. Chores would generally have to be done by like 9 or 10, though when we started swimming on Saturday mornings from 6 or 7 until 9, they'd have to be done before lunch.

Chores consisted of cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floors and vacuuming, and dusting. We would rotate through these on a monthly basis. Most of my friends had chores like making their bed, and cleaning their rooms, chores that I never understood since that was just something we had to do; beds made every morning and our rooms kept clean. And, we'd clean up our toys after playing with them, inside or outside. This is what I remember anyway, my parents might have a different story, I'll have to ask them.

Cleaning the bathroom involved sweeping the floor, cleaning the tub, toilet and sink, cleaning the mirrors and taps, and washing the floor. Sweeping and vacuuming involved sweeping all of the floors and vacuuming all of the rugs (including taking the end off and doing all the edges), we lived in like a 1000sq.ft trailer, so it wasn't a ton. And dusting was done with a wet cloth and involved wiping down all the shelves, and surfaces in the living room and bedrooms. I think my mom would do a pre-check and pay attention to key things, and if there wasn't anything I swear she'd plant stuff. Like a piece of fuzz in the corner on the rug to ensure we vacuumed all of the corners.

Chores were just a part of being part of the family. Our allowance wasn't based on them, they were just something that had to be done every week.I remember I HATED doing chores. They always took soooooooo long, and they just sucked to do. For some reason I have held onto this to this day and still despise cleaning, though when I get going I get a lot done.

So I start thinking about how we are going to raise our kids, and do things like chores.