Men at Work
Submitted by kim on Mon, 06/07/2010 - 14:58 in Homemaking
If you read the About Me page, you learned that I have six sons. You probably assume there is a husband in that mix as well. What you don't know is that my husband's eighty-nine year old father also lives with us. I live with a lot of men! One of my constant struggles as a woman of God is finding that line between honoring the men I live with, honoring their role as leaders, and yet also training my sons in the things they need to learn, like chores. Since I am so outnumbered, there is no way I could keep up with the care of our home if the prevailing attitude is all the housework is a woman's job. So, like most moms, I have a chore chart. If you have been a mom for a couple decades, you know that is pretty simple to enforce chore charts when your boys are shorter than you. True motherhood stamina is discovered when you are faced with reminding a six-foot-two seventeen year old, who just worked labor for eleven hours, that it's his turn to dust the living room.
When I tried to think about what my first blog entry should be about, I had some marvelous debut topics in mind. But they all seemed too flowery and "first blog-ish". Rather, I will start where I am today: reminding a six-foot-two seventeen year old, who just worked labor for eleven hours, that he still have to do his chore for today. I'm learning perseverance.
In my sons' defense, they all do their chores pretty willingly, even as teens. We had a long talk about this a year or so ago and the outcome was some give and take about expectations. They expressed a desire to help with daily home upkeep, if I was realistic about how much time daily would be asked of them. The conversation really made me think about what was important to me around the house. And about making their jobs meaningful to areas they use. Dusting the living room is just never going to thrill a teen boy! Since 99% of my home is hard floor surfaces, dirty floors really bother me. And so do dirty bathrooms. And my boys are all over both those areas. So I created a chart with these realities in mind. Each teen invests about fifteen minutes a day to do their part. Pretty good deal for three square meals and clean clothes! I have my own list of housekeeping responsibilities that I will share at some point, but knowing the bathrooms and floors are kept up daily is a great blessing.
As a side note, I did have the boys watch a video about how to clean a bathroom in five minutes. Google "clean a bathroom in five minutes" and you will get a variety of choices to watch yourself. The basic concept is built upon the idea that hotel bathrooms don't need thirty minutes worth of cleaning time because they are cleaned DAILY. After watching a few of the videos, we merged the different approaches into one that worked for our bathrooms using products we keep on hand. Maybe this daily approach will save you time as well.
I've attached our current chore chart for you to see how I've divided the work - basically into sections that can be completed in about fifteen minutes. On each child's "Day Off" they are my kitchen helper, meaning they are responsible to unload and load the dishwasher, and be my right hand for other kitchen emergencies, like make fifteen PB&J's for lunch. I'll share more charts over time, including ones from when the kids were little when I was first helping these guys be Men at Work.
