Jessica said sort of wistfully, "Mom, when will you give us chores?"
I did my "have you been living in an alternate reality?" face and said, "you HAVE chores, we ALL have to help."
I think she was going for the getting paid kind of helping.
Michael also clarified that she might mean the kind of chores where each person has a specific job, and each person only has to do their own job. We've tried that off and on. I think it's great for families that are home a lot, so that the jobs actually get done. I re-explained to them that when something needs to get done, it needs to get done, it can't wait hours or days for whoever it's assigned to be home and have time. Since Jacob is with me the most, he and I would have to be the ones assigned to do ALL the chores that need to be done right away (make dinner, set the table, wash dishes, sweep the floor, take out the trash, laundry, etc.) and the older kids could only be assigned the jobs that can wait, wait weeks if need be (like ... hmm, um I can't think of any right now except maybe organize the Halloween costumes). I guess we're on more of a honey-do-list system. Whoever happens to be there at the moment has to help get done whatever needs to be done at the moment. (NOT that it all gets done, NOT that I can find anyone when something needs to get done.) I think some families have specific days instead of specific jobs, I think that could work for us - still no paycheck though Jessica.
