Welcome to My World

It started, innocently enough, with an off-the-cuff remark from M. His idea caught on, however, and by the end of the evening it sounded great.

A Lego catalog arrived in our mailbox on Saturday, and the boys have been poring over it and updating us (practically) hourly about which sets they wished for. Our standard response to this has been “Start saving your money.”

Well, Braden took us seriously and started looking for ways to make extra cash. On the bulletin board we keep a list of household chores that the boys can do for extra money, if they like. Braden complained about the chores last night because he thought they didn’t pay enough. “These jobs all pay 50 and 75 cents. What I need is a $5 job. Or a $10 job.”

M. said, “ The only thing I’d pay you $10 for is for doing Mom’s job for a day.”

Ha. Ha. Ha.

Braden thought this was a great idea and lobbied M. for permission to do my job for a day. We liked his ambition, and M. gave him permission to be me today. Last night I typed up a list of all the things I do on an average day, plus a couple of extra tasks.

Braden woke up full of enthusiasm and energy, but by midmorning was starting to flag. Toys were piling up, siblings weren’t cooperative, and Braden learned that he couldn’t multi-task well. By lunchtime (1:30 today) my stomach was in knots, and the sheer volume of stuff laying around the house was stressing me out. Poor Braden was tired and feeling overwhelmed.

Braden did a super job of having dinner ready by the time M. got home, and he left for swim practice afterwards with a spring in his step. I think that he was looking forward to the break!

When he came home, I could tell he was disappointed to see that I hadn’t cleaned up the kitchen for him, and aaaaalllll those dinner dishes were waiting. He looked sadly at the counters, but he didn't complain. He worked hard to get the littles in bed, the house picked up, and the kitchen and dishes cleaned.

Braden learned a lot today, I think. It was hard watching him struggle through today, but I am proud of how hard he worked and persevered.

I made a quick movie of his day, interspersed with some of my favorite quotes of his from the day. (I love Windows Movie Maker!)

Enjoy!