crow...

I felt like I ate some crow today. I posted last week about my kids and their enthusiasm for chores, and while it's true that my oldest two get up and tackle their list first thing, my youngest child and I have gone round and round over her "chores" all week long.

One of her daily tasks is to straighten up her room. She told me a few days ago that she was taking that chore off her chart because she didn't really feel like doing it anymore. My reply? Uummm...sorry, sweetie...that's not for you to decide. That girl definitely has some spunk!

Since the beginning of the week, her room has gotten progressively messier and that box on her chart hasn't been checked off since Monday.

Yesterday and today we worked on it together. I refuse to straighten her room for her, but in an effort to show her that she CAN do this I helped her break it into smaller tasks. For example, I'd say, "Go pick up 5 books and put on your bookshelf" and once she did that, I'd ask her to "Go find 7 things you can throw in the trash" or "Pick up 3 pair of shoes and put them away". After 45 minutes of playing this little game today, her room was finally (first time all week) back in order.

It's not just her room that she doesn't want to straighten either. I've had to coax and prod her to do almost everything on her list. So...if I gave you a false impression that my children are angelic helpers (ha, ha, ha!) around here please know they're not. I've eaten the crow to prove it.