Chores

DAD believes children should have chores, regular areas of responsibility to help contribute to the family's well being. He was taking out the trash by himself by age ten. He was expected to do it on his own without being told. When the trash was full his parents expected him to notice it and pull it out of the can, haul it outside, and replace the bag. Once he "owned" the chore, he took pride in doing it. He wants his children to have the same experience, pride of ownership.

And free labor ain't bad either.

Dad thinks it is not too early to start training the Twins. So when he noticed some packing material that needed to go out, he made a game of it. The object was to get the box down to the dumpster. Each child was to take turns, or both were to help each other carry it to its destination. Dad would do the final lifting and heaving into the dumpster.

The trash to be taken to down was a box their bike came in. At first there was discord. They fought over understanding the directions. They fought over how to accomplish the task. Dad let them fight. He only made it clear that this was the task, they were to accomplish it, they were to figure it out, and he was only there to monitor their labor while he figuratively drank Mai Tais from the hammock. They can work together, they have done so before, but this instance differed because Dad asked them to do it. They had not mutually agreed to do it before making the effort. The reader should understand that when they want to cooperate, to get into the kitchen for example, they can shame Seal Team Six in their silence, efficiency, and efficacy. Taking an empty box out should be a minor task for them.

Each tried handling it on their own. EJ, as is his nature, gave up easily. There was little incentive for him to move it the 100 yards by himslef. Buggy as is hers, tried to show him how to do it and then direct him to do it. They fought, made efforts, and bickered some more. Dad was undeterred. The task was not accomplished, his drink (being patience) was emptying fast, and soon the sun would move into position where he was no longer shaded by the silver leaf maple while lying in his hammock in the court yard. He called the troops to order and demonstrated how they could both work together to get the unwieldy box moved.

Not five minutes later they were managing to move it down toward the goal.

Dad put more effort into getting them to take out the trash than he would have just doing it on his own, but the lesson was eminently more valuable.