To Love, Honour and Vacuum

Sheila Wray Gregoire wrote a fabulous, and for me, life-freeing book about housework, and getting your family to help. "To Love, Honour, and Vacuum" was a book I picked up at the local library to read during a camping trip a couple of years ago. I remember a friend speaking about it when she and I left our careers for our first bout of maternity leave and neither of us knew how to handle housework.

She liked it a lot, but I didn't read the book until my second child was 2yrs old: that's how much I wanted to learn about housework. BUT, when I finally got around to taking it off the shelf and reading it, I found it was not the rule book I thought it was. It did not say how many balls we are to hold in the air, or how perfect we need to be, our how our husbands must never know what we cannot do...

She did have a list, however frightening, of chores that should be done in the house at various times of the week or season (who knew we had to change the air filter on the furnace?). I glanced at it then and came back to it later.

I REALLY liked the part about a chore chart for the kids, and I still do. This was the life-saving part. My kids love the chore chart! They also love the rewards, however I am not as generous as Ms. Gregoire. If my kids still think money is measured by the amount of coins in their bank rather than the value of them - I am not giving them the same amount as their age. But the idea of their age determining the number of chores, and the type of chores is great! Gregoire suggests that even a youngster (my words) can wipe out the cupboards in the kitchen as a chore. It opened my eyes to how I could "use" (for lack of a better word) my kids, and teach them at the same time.

My 4-yr-old daughter's chores include, washing various windows, dusting the livingroom and keeping the coffee table tidy. My 6-yr-old son's chores are dusting the diningroom and stair rails, vacuuming the house and setting the table. They each have a pet to feed, and of course, they have their own rooms to look after, and they work together to load and unload the dishwasher. Now, do they do this on a consistent basis? No. Do they do it when I pull the chore chart out? Yes.

Mr. Man and I both have our places on the chart and the kids love pointing out our jobs. Their daddy leaves early in the morning so he is not present when they do their reviews, but they see evidences that he has taken out the garbage and recycling, and put a sticker on his place in the chart. It's cute!

So, as spring cleaning seems to be on my mind these days I thought I would make a personal list of things that need to get done:

1. dust the inside of the china cabinet and take off the door bumpers so the dust can't get in there anymore. (That'll work, right?)

2. Wash and wax the wood floors

3. Vacuum up on top of the cupboards (okay, I probably won't)

4. Shampoo the carpet, and put away for the warm season.

5. Wash windows (oh, yeah...delegated)

6. Gardening (google early spring tasks for gardening)

Okay so that's enough for this season, lol! Now, Ms. Gregoire says there are those chores that need to be done everyday - e.g. dishes, sweeping the kitchen, making supper. Those are the ones I always tackle, I promise. Hey, come on! I remember when I wore my jammies until 10am while on maternity leave! I've come far, baby!