Lessons to learn

Current version - soon to morph into
a Hobbit height sticker chart

Hobbit has no concept of money... and why should she really - she's only 6-years-old.  Hobbit is also accidentally destructive because she has no concept of money.  Sure, Pokey can fix just about anything and between her grandmother and myself, we can make just about anything... so "things" are always fine.  At least, that is her mindset and that is what we need to alter.

Today, I created a chore list for Hobbit.  You would think that creating a chore list for a little child would be easy as pie, right?  Wrong!  There are so many factors that need to be considered ~ What was too much?  What was too little?  What was setting her up for success?  What was doomed to failure?


I had to come up with something that would be a "meets in the middle" result for me and Pokey.  You see, Pokey has a more stern approach about chores than I do because he grew up in a very stern household with punishments and such that I honestly find to be overboard.  He knows this and on most of the areas of his childhood, we totally agree that they were over the top.  I, on the other hand, grew up in a house where I had no chores really.  My mother took care of it all because no matter how hard we worked to our own abilities, it was never just as my mother wanted it - a trait that I seem to have picked up and don't really care for in myself.  It's not a bad thing to have high standards, it's just a bad thing to expect everyone else to be able to do it just as you wish - sometimes "perfection" just isn't necessary.  Seriously, who cares if the items on the mantel are a quarter of an inch too far on the right after dusting - isn't it the dusting that was important?

But back to Hobbit - we needed to have a list of items that she was fully capable of doing, wasn't overwhelming and would teach her useful things as she grew up.  So the end result is one chore a day and two chores that occur every day.  They aren't difficult but they are important.  Just today, Hobbit has learned how to properly sort laundry and how to fold things like towels and shorts.  Currently, this is all exciting for her but I am sure by next week she will be fussing and groaning like other children.

We just all need to keep in the mind the lesson being learned - that things cost money and earning money requires hard work.. and I will learn that perfection isn't always necessary in order to be perfect.

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