Sunday, August 17, 2014

The One Downside to School Starting

If you know me, you know how excited I am school is starting.  This has been a L-O-N-G Summer.  One of the longest I think, though The Doctor claims I say this every Summer.  M asked me last Monday if I was going to be sad and miss the Curly Girly Trio when school starts (TOMORROW!!!) and was extremely offended when I replied, "No way!  I'm coming home and having a dance party!"

I am going to be a little disappointed though, because I'm losing my free (or very cheap) labor.

You see (or to quote L "You see here"), we have a wonderful chore rotational.  B, M and L rotate every week between Kitchen Duty, Laundry Duty and Bathroom Duty and they earn a weekly allowance of $2.00.  Whoever's room is the cleanest at the end of the week wins the Dollar of the Week.

Over the Summer, they were doing everything for each area.  Laundry was so easy for me, because all I had to do was fold and though I despise folding, it's easier to do when I know it's the only task I have.  It occurred to me yesterday that I'm going to have to pick up some of the slack while they are in school.  I still fully expect that they'll gather the dirty laundry, load and unload the dishes and keep the bathrooms tidy, but I know unless I want laundry to take forever, I am going to have to do more than just fold.

B was over the moon happy yesterday after she was moaning and groaning about having to do the laundry and I pointed out that once school starts, I'll be helping with it.  Her bubble burst when I told her allowances are still based on how much they do.

"If you spend your morning reading and moving at the pace of a snail, thus wasting time and not being able to get a load started, you will be docked in your weekly allowance, " I said.

"{indistinguishable whine}," she answered.

Her problem is, she is like Alexander who was rich last Sunday (you know, from the Alexander books?  Love those!)  She was rich last Sunday.  Sadly, she kept forgetting to turn off her light (a $0.25 fine for each infraction) and she must have thought her hamper was broken, because she insisted on leaving dirty clothes on the floor ($0.05 for each piece adds up quickly!).  This is a child who loves shopping and has parents who make her buy her own junk- uh, I mean wonderful treasures that she just has to have.  She was not too pleased when we passed through the wonderful doors of my favorite store (Target) earlier this week and my responses were "No" and "Nope" and "Ha ha ha ha ha!  Who do you think I am?" to all of her requests of "Please Mommy???  I'll pay you back!" and "I just have to have that!" and "Please, pretty please???  You can give me an advance on my allowance!"

The Chore Rotation changes today.  Her chore for this week is Bathroom Duty.  Remembering from the past, this will be accompanied by lots of eye rolls, sighs and whines.  Perhaps I should start charging for those too.  I'll be rich by the end of the week!


1 comment:

  1. Picked my chicks up at the airport yesterday. Forgot that it was like herding cats to get bedtime routines accomplished. Ahhhh...

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