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Chores


“Doing chores is a non-paying job
because helping mom is priceless!” - Jen2
I remember when the kids were younger, about 5 years old;
They couldn’t wait to do their chores.
They thought of doing chores as a fun family event!

Now that they’re older and have better and more fun activities to do,
Getting them to do their weekly chores is like pulling teeth.
I try not to make it a stressful event but when they keep putting it off,
It can get pretty stressful.

Last summer, due to antibiotics, I had major allergic reaction to almost anything .
So after 13 years of saying “no” to hiring help to clean the house,
I was forced to say “yes”.
My friend actually commented,
“You must be really sick to actually hire someone to clean your house!”I try to keep my house clean and tidy at all times.
My Cinderella helpers do their chores every week –
The older ones vacuum and mop, the younger ones do the dusting!
( The younger ones love to spray pledge that sometimes the floor gets sprayed on unintentionally, too!)It takes me 3 days a week to clean the house – 1 day for the 4 bathrooms, 1 day to vacuum the entire house, 1 day to dust. Oh I wish my house is one of those “minimalist” type of house – wouldn’t it be nice to not have that much tchotchke.


With the economic downturn that everyone seems to be experiencing,
We have to figure out ways how to tighten our belts.
We somewhat communicated to our kids our recent financial state, so they all know that we have to try to save every penny that we can and spend money on what we need and not what we want. ( Although, we sometimes still budget for some getaways.)
So the luxury of having a cleaning crew is out of our league at this time.
So back to summoning the Crumbcatchers Cleaning Crew!

My kids don’t get any allowances. (Grandma gives them some allowance). My husband and I have discussed paying the kids for doing their chores. Growing up in the Philippines, my brothers and I took turns washing the dishes (manually),
making dinner (no microwave then), washing the clothes (no washing machine either). We were all expected to chip in with housework, therefore, paying my kids to do chores seem not right.

So yesterday, everyone did their chores. It was crazy in the beginning – with echoes of “Do we really have to do it?” . But with Itunes’ playlist blasting, everyone did their share of helping out.

I bet the kids would rather change the quote that I posted in our bulletin board to say,
“ Doing chores is a HIGH-paying job, but loving mom is priceless!”
Although my kids have added:
"For everything else, there's Dad's mastercard!"



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