by Amanda Dcosta

Created on: January 31, 2009   Last Updated: February 11, 2010

It was many years ago. I was 10 at that time. My mom's brother-in-law passed away; in fact he met with a fatal accident while swimming in a dangerous zone at the beach. My aunt was widowed, with four children. There were quite a few mixed-up arrangements, but finally, after around 6 months my twin cousins, my age, both girls, ended up staying with us for a year. My siblings and I are four in number and with them included, we were quite a handful for mom and dad to manage. Both the girls were admitted to the 6th grade that I was in.

We all got off on a rough start. My cousins decided that they were guests at our place, so they'd expect us to wait on them hand and foot. My mom would wake up early in the morning at 4, 4:30 a.m., and start off with getting lunch ready for us, while dad helped with the breakfast. While dad did the laundry, washing the clothes by hand as we didn't have a washing machine, mom would go around the house cleaning up after all of us, help making our beds and if none of us had swept or mopped the place, would do that too. By 9 a.m. dad was off to work and the rest of us had to be in school, mom too, as she taught there.

This used to be a very hectic schedule. And to add to that every little thing that our wonderful cousins did would get on our nerves. They would be so picky. If one got into a squabble, the other would cry or fight back. There were a lot of emotional outbursts. I was almost 11 by then and I expected them to be like me, which according to me was being mature and responsible. My siblings and I were always taught to do a bit of chores around the house like doing the dishes, or clearing the table, sweeping and mopping, but apparently my cousins felt that they were being taken advantage of when asked to do little chores. My parents would often advice my siblings and I aside, quite frequently, to bear in mind that they were probably feeling insecure and scared. But there was a limit to tolerating differences. These were stressful times for all of us. Something had to be done.

Mom and dad decided that a "Duties Time Table" be set up. We were getting our monthly allowances, but that was being rearranged. There was a set of rotating duties that had to be done daily whether we liked it or not. All of us were given a separate room to take care of everyday. These were mandatory and with rotation, none of us could complain of favouritism. There were no options or allowances fixed for these. But in addition to these there were duties

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