order in the family & the home

Keeping order in family is hard to do, believe me I know. I raised five kids- three of which were step children. To be a family I think you have to act like a family, do things as a family unit and one of those things is to be responsible for the space in which you live. How you ask? Chores! Yup you heard me right we made the kids do chores, age appropriate chores, this is something my husband and I were firm believers in.

Did you have chores assigned to you when you were a kid? My Mom and Dad asked me to do things when they needed doing and I was responsible for keeping my room clean but I don't remember having a regular schedule of chores. I remember doing my own laundry from a pretty young age, and we had a huge house with a big yard. We were always doing some type of gardening or bagging leaves. But all and all we- my brothers and I just did what we were told when we were told, you didn't question you just did.

We made our kids do chores, keeping their room tidy, dishes, mowing the grass (we have a riding mower). Then as they got older they helped with other things,firewood, weeding, planting the garden, vacuuming, and laundry. That's not to say they were happy about any of this because they weren't; well... sometimes they were happy to help! Sometimes it was like pulling teeth.

My daughter cracks me up when it comes to this subject; she and her hubby work full time. To deal with this  she has a list of chores that the boys have to do every week; vacuuming, tidying up their rooms- their bathroom, putting away their laundry, that kind of stuff. I asked her if she had to keep after them like I did her when she was younger. She replied," the kids get an allowance if they don't do their chores they don't get their allowance that means no spending money." "You don't yell at them or anything?" Thinking back to the knock out drag outs we used to have over dish washing and bathroom cleaning. She just shrugged and replied, "I'm not riding my kids like Seabisquit a trip or two to the store without money and they get the idea!" Problem solved for her, but then my grandsons are little angels, just sayin!

Yesterday Bill and I set off to do a few things on our list of many that need to be done around the house. Might as well get some stuff done while we're stuck in the house in this cold weather, right? I cleaned the oven. It has a cleaning cycle which takes 3 hours and leave ashes that need to be wiped out afterwards. Then we defrosted- cleaned and organized all the food in our chest freezer out in our breezeway and closed down our extra refrigerator which stands right next to it. We only use that over the summer months for beer and extra food since we usually have lots of company.

As hubby and I meet ourselves coming and going bringing order to this house and a huge piece of property without the help of the children I started to think.....  I never really gave much thought to how all those things got done after I left my parents house. But I can guarantee like us the did it with a good bit of effort!

How do you do it?

I am so inspired by my friend Melissa over at mamemusings whose word of the month is ORDER or click on this button to find out how you can join in and be inspired too.