Taking a "Teaching Kids Responsibility" Sabbatical...

It's exhausting teaching kids responsibility. After an incident at the Scofield Cabin this summer, I decided our kids were severely lacking in their work ethic. Scott asked Eli and Oakley to simply hold open a garbage sack while he raked all of the leaves into it. There were a lot of leaves and it was taking a long time, but to listen to them complain about how hard it was and how they were tired and how it was taking too long- I determined they were going to learn to work!
I later had a job chart set up and told them they were each going to do a job a day and that they would also be earning allowance. They have been really been wanting a Wii gaming system, so I told them they could save their allowance for one. I've been amazed at the transformation. It is a HUGE pain to have kids to jobs. I have to help them and I usually have to go back later and do it myself the right way. So it's taking twice as long! But the boys have been really good about getting their daily job done. Very little grumbling and I think their skills are getting a bit better. I made a chart for them to track how much allowance they have earned and how close they were to getting a Wii.

After an entire summer of working, they have now earned enough money to buy a Wii. We will be making that purchase soon, just in time for the temperature to take a major dive. It will be great to have some new indoor entertainment for them.
But I'm exhausted from helping to teach responsibility. I'm going to shirk one of my responsibilities as a parent and take a sabbatical from daily jobs for a while... until they're ready to earn Christmas money.