They're Waiting For Me: The Chores that Wouldn't Go Away (PagePerfect NOOK Book)

I grew up in a rural area of Idaho. (Yes, there are areas in Idaho that are not rural.) Our family of 11 lived on an acre with a large garden, a barn, and a small pasture to keep various livestock. Every Saturday morning my 8 brothers and I were required to do our chores, which consisted of working in the garden, cleaning the house, feeding the chickens, and tending to the livestock in the pasture. We had a cow for a few years that my older brother, Maurice had to milk twice daily by hand when he was in junior high. He developed tremendous grip strength which certainly helped him be a state-championship wrestler. My twin brother and I were in elementary school when we were responsible for raising 2 steers. One cold winter morning my mom discovered that Emil and I forgot to feed and water the steers. She picked us up from school wearing a housecoat and took us home to supervise the completion of our chores. The e job would have taken my mom only a few minutes to do but she used that opportunity to teach us both accountability and responsibility. Like most children, my brothers and I hated doing our chores, but as adults, we appreciate the strong work ethic they instilled in us. I
was determined to pass on that same strong work ethic to my own children and to try to make it fun so they didnât dread it as much as I did when I was a kid. My wife Wendy and I gave our kids easy chores like cleaning the doorknobs and lightswitches when they were 3 or 4 years old. As they grew older we would modified their chores to suit their age. When my firstborn, Kiara was 8 years old I discovered to my horror that the dread of chores was hereditary.
She skillfully employed the same avoidance excuses that I did as a child. Even the mere mention of the word would send my typically good-natured angel into a funk. I even tried to create an acronym to make it more palatable: Childrenâs Hour Of Responsible Endeavors It didnât work. So I employed my creative genius to write this story as a preventative measure in an eff ort to break the cycle. I hope, as children grow up reading about how much easier it is to do their chores instead of coming up with the same old excuses to avoid them, theyâll happily go about doing them without complaint...OK That sounds altruistic. A dad can wish, canât he?