The Value of Work

As my three children get older, I wonder about them, and how much they really know how to work. Sure, they have chores, and we make them help with the yardwork on Saturdays when we do it as a family, but outside of that, do they know how to work?

Case in point, when I ask Thing Two to clean his room, he falls to the floor and parodies dying. And he lays there until I tell him to get the heck up and get into his room. Hmmm. Should I be concerned?

Thing One knows how to work, but along with the Sassypants Gene she apparently inherited the Lazy Whiner Gene, where when I ask her to dry the dishes, some days she jumps up and helps and others she whines like a mule and tells me it's "not fair that no one else is helping." Some days she's motivated and works great. Others, well...if she were any lazier she'd slip into a coma.

Hubby grew up in a household where he was expected to clean the house entirely every day before school along with his siblings, and his family had a half-acre garden they labored in every day, and they were forced to work at a very young age.

Let's just say I grew up differently. Not better or worse--just differently. I wasn't expected to work much. It wasn't until I was sixteen, and old enough to get a job, that I learned how to work.

Now I look at my own children, and wonder about them. They are growing up in a generation of Nintento and technology that enables laziness. Scary. There is no question that the work ethic of 20 years ago doesn't exist today. Our grandparents had to work, and hard. I don't want my children growing up as lazy unmotivated slobs. That scares the heck out of me. We are definitely implementing more structure in our home, more so than before.

In happier news, this weekend was fun. Saturday morning we got my Mother's Day/Birthday present (we traded in the red Expedition for a more dignified color--Copper...it's really cool looking, and I finally got TAN interior which is something I've always wanted!) and then we did the yard and played with the kids and saw the movie Hoot (serious cheese factor, but the Jimmy Buffet songs made it worthwhile for Hubby and I) and we relaxed and had fun. We even drove up to Pike's peak in the new car yesterday, but it started storming so bad we were forced to turn back.

No writing this weekend, but then again, I never do. I've still got the new story idea churning in my head, and I invented a race of creatures, and gave them a cool name. Whenever I invent a name, I google it to see if I "got there first." I HATE it when I make up a really cool name, and then google it only to find out that some other writer made it up before me.

Well, time to run! I get to mail out Mother's day presents today and my mom is going to love the.................
....................oops, I nearly spilled the beans!!