Saturday Jobs

Jobs are a tricky thing for pretty much every family I've ever talked to. What we should expect from our children and when isn't an easy thing to figure out. And for me, following through and upholding expectations is even harder than figuring out what jobs everyone should be doing. Every family does it differently, and we re-invent the wheel whenever we feel like it needs to be re-invented. That seems to happen a lot.

Currently, we are giving each of our kids an incentive to keep their rooms clean. I'm happy with the results of this so far because for the past three years none of our kids even makes their bed unless it's Saturday. Rooms have been disastrous and since we've started this little motivator, the kids are actually spending more times in their orderly, clean bedrooms and I know they feel a difference. That's what I'm after. I want them to feel the difference between order and chaos.

Other than their bedrooms, the only thing we require of the girls through the week is to do dinner dishes and occasionally help with dinner prep when I ask. It usually works out that Brita and Leah wash dishes once or twice a week each and they all help with clearing the table, putting away food and setting the table.

We also expect everyone to pick up after themselves. But for some reason I put an average of 6-7 cups in the dishwasher everyday. Still, if Jared or I notice that their shoes are sitting in the middle of the room, we call them upstairs or make them stop whatever they are doing to put their stuff away. The same goes for lights. Jared and I share a pet peeve of lights being left on. We actually kind of like it when we have to pull one of them away from the TV downstairs to come upstairs and turn off a light. It makes us feel very satisfied that we are doing our job as parents to teach our kids some important life lessons and skills.

We don't feel like we require a bunch from them during the week and we like it that way. We want out kids to have a childhood. We want them to have fun and we don't want them to be overloaded with responsibility. But we do want them to be responsible. There are lots of ways to teach this and we do the best we can. Our kids know we have high expectations of them, but they also know that we realize childhood is a time for learning. This means they aren't going to automatically be good at everything they do right away. They need time to make mistakes and time to figure things out on their own. We are proud of them and the people they are becoming. They are such good kids and we don't feel the need to micromanage their time or to teach them responsibility solely through work. Work is important, but it's not the only way to teach what we want them to learn.

The one day we require more work of them is Saturday. I leave them a list of jobs on the kitchen counter for each of my kids in the morning and they can get together with friends or leave the house after their jobs are done. If they really dig in, they can be done with everything on their list in about an hour. Jared and I are certain one hour of "hard" work a week isn't too much to require or ask. Some days I can't believe the complaining and whining that comes along with their lists and other days I'm surprisingly impressed with their can-do attitudes and hard work ethics.

A few weeks ago I was completely entertained for the morning watching these two. Leah was dusting the fans with the long-handled duster and she started following Brita around the house so she could interview her about the jobs she was doing.

The interviewer got a little distracted asking questions here. Brita didn't really seem to appreciate the dusty "microphone" in her face.

I wish I could remember the commentary because it was witty and hilarious. It totally made my day to watch these sisters together.

It got me thinking...jobs and hard work might teach responsibility, but jobs can bring families together too. And some days, maybe that's what we're after.