I would say that I have a fairly typical family when it comes to getting children to do their chores. No one wants to help without first going through the who, what, why, where and “how long grounded if I do not comply?” Loss of computer time generally wins out over my attempt to inspire them to domestic greatness. But it’s a whole different story if the children believe there’s a chance to increase their financial portfolio by the sweat of their brow.
This evening, Isaiah came to me and said “Do you think you would pay me $.05 a piece if I fixed all the broken clothespins?”
My jaw fell on the floor.
You see, this beautiful child could walk into the kitchen, see a pile of strawberry jam on the floor surrounded by a neat circle of ants feasting on the spill, and never once think “I should clean this up so mom doesn’t have to.” Yet he notices broken clothespins?
I agreed to his terms and quickly forgot about our arrangement until he came back 45 minutes later looking like the Maytag porcupine attacked him.
“You owe me $.85, Mom,” he said with blazing dimples.
“I’ll round it up to a whole dollar if you let me take your picture.”
“SWEET!”
As I went to grab my camera, I caught Nathanael in his room with the clothepin bucket on his bed. He was purposefully breaking the clothespins in hopes of making some big bucks and is now grounded from the computer for 24 hours.
Oh, parenthood.
