With Great Flowers Comes Great Responsibility

     Ariel gave the children a chore a couple of weeks ago.  They are to pull weeds in the flower beds for fifteen minutes a day.  Today I overheard him telling his brother about the chore.  I also heard him say, "It is going very well".  To this I snorted.  "What?", Ariel asked.  "Isn't it?"

     Day one was a fight to even get the kids outside.  All Aston did was cry. Clara pulled a bunch of weeds.  Enzo managed a small hand full.  Day two required threatening to tell Daddy if they didn't get cracking.  Aston didn't do anything except for beg me not to tell Daddy.  Day three Enzo asked Clara to do their fifteen minutes without any prompting.  Then it rained for a few days and we had to start back at square one.  Aston has refused to pull more than ten weeds and Clara and Enzo scream at each other about their poor performances.  This is after I dedicate a chunk of my time to begging them to go out.  Hardly any weeds get pulled and it seems like a big waste.  Today was the icing on the cake though.  I'm actually excited for Ariel to get home so I can share with him just how well his Operation Responsibility is going.

     Before leaving for work this morning Ariel told me that he'd like the children to do half an hour of weeding today because they skipped yesterday.  I told him I'd see to it.  Really, what harm can come of fifteen extra minutes of sitting in the shade on their bottoms insulting each other?  Who knew they would pick today to actually show some hustle?!  They asked what was a weed and what wasn't (See those two big Box Woods and the rose?  Those are the only things that aren't weeds.) and got straight to work.  I was weeding the mint when "it" happened.  Aston let out a blood curdling scream.  He had yanked a hand full of weeds and spun around to dump them in the wagon but got caught in the rose instead and was covered in thorns.  I quickly ran to help him and hold him as he wailed.  That is when the following fight broke out.

The Fight

A true story as witnessed by Mrs. Lora D. Jones

ASTON:(crying) Clara I HATE your rose!

CLARA:(smugly) My rose hates you.

ASTON:(still crying) I'm going to get my own rose and my rose is going to eat yours!

CLARA:(shouting) I'm going to get a Venus fly trap and it is going to eat YOU!

ENZO:(absentmindedly) They only eat flies.

CLARA: I am going to dress him up in a fly costume and then feed him to it!

ASTON continues crying for seemingly endless amount of time.

The End

     In the future I think I will ask Ariel to assign only chores that he has time to over see.  I'm content to battle entitlement issues with simple tasks like clearing dishes, keeping toys off the floors, and occasionally depositing dirty clothes in a hamper.  Anything else is on Papa Bear!  I quit.