(Updated with Stacy Julian's links-just clink on them to check it out!)
Saturday-it seems to come so fast. I keep thinking that the summer is going so quickly. I want to sit and just enjoy it. I want to find a shady spot under a tree and read Anne of Green Gables. It is my favorite book/series ever. My Mom and I read the entire series many summers in a row. I need to do it again!
I have really had a very busy week. Where it is Smart Habit Saturday again I thought that I would look at what I have actually accomplished this week. I am really hard on myself so it is so easy to look at what I didn't get done.
Today I decided that I need to make a master list for all jobs that could possibly ever need done in this home. I KNOW all the things that need done. I have nightmares about the dirty baseboards and doorjams. I know that the hall closet is a crash waiting to happen. I can feel the clutter hiding behind closed doors in the furnace room. The problem? I am the only person that KNOWS what needs to be done. Everyone else walks around and looks at the dirty jam smeared across the wall and thinks "that is gross, Mom should really clean that up." Well, this Mom is tired of doing too much work!
So, what is my new Smart Habit Saturday habit? I am going to quit being the martyr and demand more from my family. My #2 said to me today after I had asked him to do his jobs--"Why do we have to do this? Kids aren't supposed to work!" I was ready to jump across the room and yell "that is the problem with our society, we have listened to people tell us that children shouldn't work. That is why we have 19-30 year olds that still live at home with their parents. They don't think that they should work!" Well, I am here to say that I feel that if you live in my house you have to help take care of it.
How am I going to get my family to buy in to this new regime? A really big 2x4 board! No,just kidding! One step at a time! However, I am going to us a technique that I learned in a former life as a special ed teacher. Detailed lists of tasks. I don't remember the official name of this method but we had to understand that many people just don't understand HOW to do some things. So, we have to break every task down into minute little details. I did this today for my two middle children. I made their lists about how/what to clean in the bathroom they are responsible for. I decided that I had to revamp the list to be so specific that it was ridiculous. However, if I have every little detail down on paper they can't argue that I didn't tell them to do it!
I am going to type these lists out so that I don't have to keep writing them. The benefit of this method is that I can add little things that seem to not be happening, more details if necessary.
Years ago I met a gal named Stacy Julian. I was her assistant at a scrapbooking convention. Since that time she has become the founding editor to Simple Scrapbooks Magazine. She travels, teaches etc. I totally respect this woman. She has five children. Four older boys and a brand new adopted little Korean girl. This woman is busy! She had to fly to SLC Ut often to do her job. Her husband is a busy doctor. This gal could just fly by the seat of her pants. However, she is so down to earth and simply organized that her life doesn't appear to be full of chaos.
Last week she posted on her blog about how she keeps her kids on schedule now that it is summer. I think that her ideas are fabulous! Check out Stacy's blog to get more details with pictures. I am thinking that I could have a clipboard somewhere in each bathroom with a checklist of what is supposed to be done when it is clean. I also think that I am going to have to make detailed lists of every cleaning job that happens in this home. I actually started a running list of those jobs that we do in those 2 minutes here and there. Things like--wipe down the baseboard in the bathrooom, wipe the smudges off the door, clean the garage door, clean cobwebs. The list is endless, however, if I don't write these things down, noone but me will ever know that they must be done.
So this week(despite the holiday) I am going to try and keep my kids picking up and doing the jobs that need done--because they live in this house!
For more SHS ideas check out the Lazy Organizer.
5 comments:
I TOTALLY agree with you! I am just appauled at the generation coming up now that act like living with their parents until they're 30 is perfectly fine because they are waiting until they get "paid more" though they don't want to work harder! It just boggles my mind! I have my older kids do chores around here, and they DON'T get paid for them. Well, the oldest gets paid to do things for me like take out dirty diapers, but other than that, "YOU LIVE HERE TOO!" is my motto too!
BTW - I LOVED Anne of Green Gables and my 9 year old had just started reading it, kinda makes me feel old though ;-)
I think this is a great goal. In the summer, things tend to slide off the schedule.
Good luck this week.
Preach on sista! It bugged me in high school when kids would say things like "I was late cuz my mom didn't wake me up." Wha? I come from a large family {and even before it was large} it was known that everyone pitches in. Good luck with your goal this week!
Do it girl! I am obviously all over this idea. It does take time though. My kids do things now that I wouldn't have dreamed of asking them to do a year ago. Keeping working on it because it's worth it and your kids will thank you when they're older. At least I'm hoping they will! Actually my kids are already thanking me. My boy thinks it is so cool that he's the best dish washer in the world!
Way to go! My belief is that if you're part of the family, you're partly responsible for taking care of what God has given us. That's just something families do. My children have chores that they are expected to do because they are part of the family, and then if they do extra ones that aren't their jobs, per se, they are rewarded.
I also reward them any time all of their tasks for the day are completed and every day they read their Bibles. For all these things, they get tokens. Once they have enough "treasure," they can trade it in for their reward.
I knew kids in college that didn't know how to do basic things like laundry and cleaning a bathroom, because they had never been taught at home. I keep thinking, my children will be most likely be someone's spouse one day, so we must train them well.
Good luck with your habit! Please let us know how the detailed lists work out for you. :)
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