What can I do next, Mom?

My girls have never really done chores. I know that makes me a terrible mom, but it is just easier to do things myself. Macy has helped clean up her room before, but that’s it. They don’t get an allowance, and don't have assigned chores.

That being said…Sunday, while I enjoying my Mother’s Day nap and Bobby was napping also, the girls were playing in Macy’s room. We learn later that they ripped a hole in the screen on Macy’s window, and threw things out onto the driveway. Toys, a roll of toilet paper, paper, you name it was on the driveway. At least one of them hadn’t fallen through…I shudder to think about that.
(Macy’s theory of what happened to the screen...”While I was sleeping, someone came in my room and ripped a hole in the screen. When I woke up, the hole was there!)

Bobby’s “lecture” to them apparently didn’t work, because they were giggling about in the car. So last night, when Macy got home, I told the girls they had to do chores. I said they were going to start doing chores once a week. Last night’s chores would help “pay” for the screen. They were unbelievable—they helped me clean the coffee table, clean the kitchen, Macy vacuumed the living room and her bedroom, Kaylin vacuumed the hallway and her bedroom, they hung up clothes, picked up toys, put books on the bookshelf, made their bed…all without a single word of complaint. They’d finish one job, come to me and ask, “What can I do now?” They didn’t fight with each other, they didn’t argue with me, it was like heaven on earth.

When they got ready for bed, they wanted to keep doing chores. Kaylin wanted to make her bed, so after she was in bed and tucked in, we pulled the covers nice and neat around her bed. Macy made a list of things she was going to do at grandma’s for chores…after she played for a little bit, of course. They made a list of different chores they can do each day. THEY made the list—not me. Wednesday’s Macy wants to clean the garage—I vetoed that idea.

It was the sweetest thing I’ve seen from them in a long time. I’m sure the newness of doing chores will wear off, but it sure was nice while it lasted.