Are you guys daft or incredibly lazy?
This question was directed to my four youngest son's this weekend. I had asked them to clean up the entryway,staircase and their bedroom. When they came down an hour or so later I asked repeatedly if they had done a good job and were they finished. The answer always came back "It is done." I know I should have checked,but I was in the middle of organizing the store . Which translates to, I was knee deep in books and trying to clear a path.
Fast forward to the evening and I am frantically looking for the missing shoes that they have to wear to church the next day.[ I have to digress here as I am wondering how I managed to give birth to eight children with two legs each ,but as they grew-up they all lost a leg. We have tons of shoes that are single ; they somehow lost their mate.] Now, I am not much for tradition,so I figure they could go to church without shoes,but alas it is 0 degrees outside and I might get reported. At this point there is no way to avoid the entryway and I slowly open the door. This can be scary in my house as we are not the most organized people on the planet. Now, as a side note, it is about 6:00 (Montana time) on Saturday,so if you heard someone blowing their stack, it was me. I can not believe that they think it is okay to dump underware, garbage,shoes and dishes into a clothes basket and put it in the corner. On top of that they put toys on the bookcases and shoved things under the coat/shoe rack. It only got worse as I progressed upstairs.
So, this is where the original question comes in. It is hard for me to believe that they are daft,so I am leaning towards the lazy side of the question. As a homeschooler I do not know which answer is worse. Either they are daft and will never make it on the cover of HSLDA magazine or they are lazy and they will never make it on the cover of HSLDA magazine. Not that it is my goal to make it on the cover. I long ago learned that I am not destined for that. But they all could try a little harder to meet the high standards set before us as homeschoolers.
I have tried numerous " programs" and have not yet found one that we can stick to.
1. Managers of the Home- My Hubby actually asked me to stop doing this one. He did not like to be scheduled. But every time I get this book in the store I want to try again. There is something about it that promises perfection and I am game for that. The problem is I can never attain it.
2. Managers of their chores- I did not do this one,but I recently looked at it and I could not imagine the children running around with cards around their necks. One of them would probably get hung up on something, and hurt themselves. My children are prone to finding ways to hurt themselves they really do not need help.
3. Fly-lady- I like this one,but I think I need to make it a Home Economics course,so that everyone can be involved. It is to much work for one person to do alone. Maybe I could make them all wings and wands and they could run around doing the chores happily.
4. Wait until they leave home and miss all the mess- Everyone keeps telling me that I will miss the mess,but I really can not imagine missing 20 loads of laundry a week. I will miss them,but I can't imagine I will miss the mess they create.
At this point I think I am leaning towards #4. Maybe I should just keep wading through my own mess and work on them later.
Blessings,
Jeanie
