Earning Your Keep

It was a Saturday afternoon, Dylan played soccer earlier that morning. I gave him his lunch, turned on the tv, and decided I must cut the grass. Uggggh! Don't sleep on my yard! It's a LOT of work plus I have a push mower. So, it takes about 1.5 to 2 hours to mow both the front and back. I'm mowing the grass when Dylan runs out and says "Mommy, can you give me some chips?" I look at him like he's lost his mind. My thoughts are "Do you not see me doing anything? I'm out here trying to get this done and you're asking me about chips?" I ignored him and kept on mowing....well about five minutes later he comes and asks me again.

I suddenly had an epiphany. As a child, my parents were never outside working while I watched tv inside. Also, since Dylan isn't taking this work seriously maybe he would if he was out here with me. I went inside, turned the tv off, and explained to Dylan why. Oh he cried and whined. That made me even more irritated. I told him that it was selfish to ask me to stop what I was doing when I asked him what he needed/wanted before I went outside.

I told him to change his clothes and shoes and come outside to help. He had an irritated look on his face. I told him he'd better fix his face or that would be bad for his business. Bad for his business could equate to no tv for the rest of the night or next two days. It could be more things included. I gave him the rake to get up the excess grass and leaves. He ended up doing a good job. He became very helpful and was constantly asking "Mommy, can I help you with this? Mommy, do you have anything else for me to do?" It turned out to be a good afternoon but I think he's learned that he might not want to do that again. Plus, that's going to be the rule from hereon, do your part. Everyone has a role and he's no different. He can do small things to help out.

Raking up grass-yeah the rake's bigger than him