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I am an old-school parent, I believe in chores, it builds character, it fosters community, and it has to be done.

My five children all have chores that have increased with their age. They all started at age two. My foray into kid-chores actually began with my elder sons. The oldest son was four-years-old at the time and the middle son was two. I sent them to the bathroom so the big brother could teach the younger brother how to go to the bathroom like a "big boy." After they spent too much time and too many giggles, I walked in to find them sword fighting with their pee-pee and subsequently spraying the toilet. They looked up at me with the saucer-eyes of kids who just knew they were going to be in big trouble. I just laughed, cleaned them up, grabbed two sponges, the bucket, and the bathroom cleaner. I removed everything from the counter and anything I didn't want to get soaking wet and proceeded to tell them to "clean it up." It was a Friday evening so they had a lot of fun splashing around the soap suds and managed to do a pretty good job of cleaning the bathroom, thus began their weekly duty.

The children have had to do dishes, take out the trash, mow the lawn, vacuum, dust, do their laundry, bring in the groceries, clean the bathroom, clean the garage, and any other chore we needed completed at the time. Five kids later and now two daughters in the mix, chores are still a constant. I would divide the chores up by wets and drys. If the chore was dry that meant sweeping, trash, and vacuuming. If the chore was wet that meant dishes and bathrooms. By the time my boys were twelve, they were in charge of doing their own laundry. All of this was without payment, chores are their contribution to the household, just like my husband's work and my work.

What have they learned? My eldest son is now twenty-one and lives in his own apartment. He is a college student and works at Wal*Mart. He has always been a diligent and hard worker. He has learned the value of completing a job well, having been awakened in the night when he forgot to finish the dishes one time too many. This son is now very particular about his apartment and keeps it very neat. The second son was a harder test when it came to keeping his room and bathroom free of dirty clothes on the floor, but he too learned the benefit of hard work and his contribution. His constant chore became mowing our big lawn and taking the trash out. He always hated the dishes but would always just "get it over with." This

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