Well, after the last post I feel like I have to give props here to my oldest son. My husband and I let him babysit a couple of his younger siblings while we ran a few errands this past weekend.   The errands ended up taking longer than we anticipated, running over into the dinner hour.

My husband and I had debated cutting our running around short and heading home. I called home and my son assured us that everything was fine. He could make something for dinner. He has cooked dinner before, but never entirely alone for the whole cooking, serving, cleaning up process. So I was slightly nervous that it might be too much for him. But he insisted.

We arrived home about an hour later to find him standing at the sink washing the pots and pans. He had made pasta and heated up a jar of pasta sauce. Then he had put it all nicely into a large serving bowl and even sliced up some bread to go along with it. I was thoroughly impressed.

The little charges he had been left babysitting went on and on about how delicious his dinner was. He was beaming.

I told him that I would finish cleaning up the kitchen since he had done all of the cooking and had been such a great babysitter. And you know what he said?

“Nah, I’ll finish it. That’s okay.”

I was tempted to make a funny remark like, “Who is this boy? And when is my real son coming back?” But I didn’t. Instead I just thanked him for a job well done.

So for all of you out there who are still working at getting your children to do chores and wondering if it is ever going to pay off, I am here to tell you that it will.  All those times when you wonder if you should just let the sloppily done chore slide because you don’t feel like having the argument, or if you should just give up on the chores all together because you don’t feel like having to be the bad guy, don’t give up.   I am telling you that one day you will be thankful for the hard work that you put in. The times you made them re-clean their bathroom, rather than let it slide because it would be easier for you.  (you of course meaning, me)

The bigger goal is raising responsible, capable young adults.  And now that I have one, I can tell you that it is worth it.