Doing Chores

 Doing Chores
By Allan Olson.
Why is that whenever there is work to be done that the kids suddenly come down with the urge of “I gotta go to the potty,” or “I’m tired,” or “do I have to it by myself.”
Since we don’t have wood to cut, or animals to feed (except our fish) the chores around our house is really limited especially considering, the grass stopped growing and I stopped mowing in September. The chores around our house are really basic like - clean your room; pick up the mess you made, help with dishes etc., the normal stuff most families deal with.
Over the weekend Marcus was asked to help with something and all of a sudden fatigue just overwhelmed him as we was too tired to possibly help with anything. The result was he ended up in bed since he was too tired to help he was obviously too tired to stay up, he really didn’t like that option either.
Alivia is a mix, sometimes she offers so much help that she becomes a nuisance other times she couldn’t possibly be asked to lift a finger. On Sunday, I asked Nikolai to empty the food scrap bucket a job he doesn’t enjoy and Alivia quickly volunteered to assist him and beat him dressed for the outdoors and grabbed her bucket of garbage and was on her way. Not to be outdone he went into hyperdrive and was heading out the door shortly behind her.
Then Abigail appeared needing help with her jacket because she wanted to go outside. Not to help but just to tag along with the other two so out the door she went as well.
Fast forward a few hours and Abigail was asked to pick up the stickers she was playing with. Her excuse was that she kept stepping in the container and they kept spilling so that’s why they were all over the floor. I volunteered Alivia to help clean the mess up, and she was the one who ultimately did the majority of the work. Abigail earned the privilege of being sent to bed earlier than the rest of the kids for her lack of assistance.
Aside from the occasional arguments with the children and the disagreements between the four of them, the weekend went by quickly with no injuries (the kids or the tree decorations) hopefully the tree won’t lose all its needles before Christmas and with any luck the remainder of the decorations will remain intact.
So the goal of this next year is to get the kids to willingly do their jobs without complaint and hey maybe just maybe they would do it without being asked. I’m sure that as a child I never complained about having to do some simple chores like that.
Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration I might’ve came up with an excuse or two to get out of work. I even remember faking being sick with the whole Asthmatic cough just to avoid going to the woods, but of course now that I’m a parent it’s a double-standard, the words just do it, come to mind.
This week with the promise of our oven finally being fixed (hoping the third part is the charm) we will be looking to find time to do some Christmas baking (hopefully it won’t break down in the middle of it).  If it doesn’t get fixed or breaks down again those family members expecting some baked goods  will be out of luck. Besides I’ve already made it known that if this part doesn’t fix my oven it’s going to go rolling down the stairs or maybe even the highway just like my dryer did just over a year ago.
P.S. Just in case Santa is real and reading my column here is my list. Dear Santa, my wish for Christmas season this year is to go ice fishing! To actually catch some fish would be an added bonus.
Thanks for reading, and remember to watch out for those school buses. As always, feel free to drop us a line and/or a photo, and have a great week. For more of my columns visit http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com




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