The advent of Family Jobs

We're gearing up for the school year, and we're trying one thing on for size as soon as possible: family jobs. The way we're looking at it, the care and upkeep of our home is a full time job in and of itself. When adding childrearing (and it's not that we don't want to add that!) and homeschooling, the job starts looking pretty huge. . . for one person.

Enter Family Jobs. We really could have been more serious about these a long time ago-- I think a positive attitude about helping the family early on can be a huge influence-- but still, it's never too late. We have divided up some jobs for which each family member takes as a prime responsibility: for Fiona it's feeding the cats, and for Nora it's hunting down family shoes and getting them back to Shoe Mountain where they 'belong'. Ian and I each have our own lists and one we share. The girls also share some tasks, like making beds and sorting the recycling. The 'payment' for any of these tasks is the satisfaction of working together to help the family function together more smoothly.

I'm sure we'll find a million holes in our plan once we've implemented it fully, but it's an exciting start, anyhow. On her way out to the recycling bins this afternoon, Nora tossed my hat on her head and and said, "I'm Mommy. Next I'm going out to the garden!"