Chores....Gotta Love 'Em

Most families have chores.  Growing up, my brother and sister and I had our daily chores of making our bed, putting our clothes in the laundry, taking the laundry down or the garbage out, setting the table, unloading the dishwasher, washing the dishes, etc.  We then had our Saturday "Cleaning Day" chores of vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms (groan!).  I never ever EVER liked Cleaning Day, and as I groaned through cleaning, would plot and plan how I would someday (when I was a parent) change this whole ridiculous thing.  As I thought about it more and more though, I never really came up with a good plan.  I started to admit to myself (which I, of course, NEVER admitted to my parents) that the plan in place was a reasonable and smart one, and I didn't really know what to change to make it better.  After all, the house DOES have to be cleaned, and it's only fair for everyone in the household to pitch in.  I realized I just didn't like cleaning and that was my own personal issue that I needed to deal with! :)

At CSC, our kids have chores too.  We have four houses at CSC and over 70 children, so everyone needs to pitch in to keep things running smoothly!  Yes, our kids are spoiled with love and a great place to live, but they don't get out of daily chores!  There is a schedule that they follow, and some of them love their chores as much as I did. ;)  Some of them don't mind it so much.  Our kids arrange the slipper racks, fold the mountains of clothes that come with many kids in a house, bring down the dirty clothes, wash the dishes, wipe the table, sweep after meals, clean up after meals and birthday parties, and sweep the leaves outside.  It's all part of the process of helping them learn responsibility and what it means to be part of a family, even though their current family at CSC is quite large!  Here are a few shots of kids doing their daily chores.