Summer Internship as My Kid

School's out in a few days and my plan is ready. Lately I've been frustrated with the sheer number of times it takes me to ask my children to do something before they will actually do it. It's like they automatically tune me out until I'm in their faces and we are late for something. 

But I refuse to do it all summer long. Asking a thousand times for someone to do something makes me sound like a total nagger and it's downright annoying. Plus, it makes my throat hurt.

So my kids will all be hired as interns in our home this summer and they will work for what they want. There will be on-the-job training offered for all chores, since the past few months have made it clear that we each have drastically different definitions of what "clean" means. Good performance will be rewarded and there will be consequences for poor performance.

Of course, I'm not giving them a choice on whether they want to apply for said internship or not. But they've been enjoying the perks for way too long and I think it's time we held them accountable. So here is my plan:

 

Job description:

To be completed first thing in the morning:

Make your bed

Say prayers

Get dressed

Eat breakfast and clean up anything you used or got out

Empty your part of the dishwasher

Brush teeth

To be completed sometime before dinner:

Pick up anything you either got out or used during the day and put it away

Clean up your bedrooms (this means all clothes off the floor, shoes away, toys in their proper places, and any random stuff picked up off the floor).

When you hear three short whistle blasts, it is time to turn off screens. Please turn them off right away. If another three blasts come before it is off, you will lose a Star and mom will turn off the power without giving you the chance to save anything.

If mom asks you to do something more than once, you will lose a Star.

Every Friday is frozen yogurt day (there's a place down the street that they ask to go to every single time we get in the car). One froyo trip costs 70 stars, which is what you will earn in one week if you do all your jobs each day and don't lose any stars. If you don’t have enough stars on Friday but someone else does, they will get froyo and you won’t. Sorry, but that's life.

Benefits:

You will be fed three meals and one to two snacks per day.

You will be transported to and from playdates, sports and other activities.

Funding will be provided for said sports and other activities.

You will have a place to sleep every night, with adequate air conditioning and/or fans and blankets.

Boat outings, lake days, play dates and other side trips will be added at the discretion of your employer.

You will earn Stars for completing your requirements on time, which you can exchange for froyo trips.

Training:

As one of the benefits of your new employment, you will undergo several days of training, where you will receive the tools you need to do your jobs well this summer. 

We are looking forward to having you on our team!

I made a chart where they can keep track of everything they do each day. I'm hoping it will be motivating to check things off a list and that the threat of losing their froyo trip even if their siblings don't will be enough to keep things under control this summer.

I guess I'll have to keep you posted.

Never Too Old

When I was a girl, there was one thing I wanted with all my heart. Mostly because my best friend had one, but that's beside the point.

The thing I wanted was an American Girl Doll. Molly or Samantha, to be precise.

Samantha had prettier clothes.

But Molly had cooler accessories. 

Both of them had great hair and I would dream of the day when I'd have my very own doll to practice all my inventive hairstyles on without my best friend whining that she wanted her doll back. I never had to choose between them, though, because I never got one. Apparently, they're expensive or something.

Well, now I'm a grown up and my doll obsession is behind me. Or so I thought. My daughters are just the right age and, wouldn't you know it, there's an American Girl store within driving distance of our home. I've secretly been wanting to go ever since we moved here. And now, the time has come. A few weekends ago, I took Bright along with me to experience the American Girl Place for the first time together.

It was like a dream.

We arrived ten minutes before they opened and rushed upstairs to the hair salon as soon as they unlocked the doors. We were second in line. And no, we did not come away with fantastic new hair-dos. Bright's American Girl doll, Caroline, did. She sat in an itty bitty salon chair while a doll stylist tamed her tangled doll curls and put them in a fancy up-do. Caroline also got her ears pierced while we were there.

After our visit to the stylist, we stopped into the cafe for brunch. The cafe was, seriously, the cutest place I've ever seen in my entire life. Decorated in white, black and hot pink, it was like sitting inside an incredibly chic cupcake. Bright and I shared brunch while asking each other questions from a little conversation starter box on the table. Caroline got her own little seat, along with a teacup and saucer so she wouldn't get bored while the humans ate their food.

 

 

After brunch, we wandered through every inch of the three-story American Girl Place store. We studied the historical girl doll displays, oohed and ahhed at the girl of the year displays and exclaimed over cute outfit after cute outfit. Apparently, my obsession with doll stuff has not dwindled over time. 

But that's okay. My daughter and I had a truly fantastic day. We spent the next day giving her new doll (the one she'd saved up her own money to buy) a salon day complete with a spa pedicure and a temporary perm in her hair.

 (This is Caroline and Amy - Bright's dolls, and Kit - Plucky's doll)

Being a girl is so much fun!

The Power of the Snow Day

I grew up in sunny California. In all my years of school, we had exactly ONE weather related cancellation. And it wasn't for snow. (The only time it snowed, it lasted about ten minutes and we all piled out of our classrooms to watch the flakes until they turned back into rain.) No, the weather related cancellation was for too much rain. The parking lot and some of the classrooms of our outdoor school flooded, so the teachers met us outside in the poring rain as we arrived at school and sent us straight home. I'd had a big history test that day and was elated by the unexpected extra day I had to study. And take a nap. And read a book while eating my mother's homemade cookies.

It never happened again, but my one day of weather-related freedom will forever live in the annals of most awesome days ever.

My kids, unlike me, are growing up in an area of the country that gets lots of snow. And lots of cold winter days, rife with school cancellations and delays. To them, snow days are a regular thing. Part of the wonder of winter. Something to be counted on. And though we've lived here for twelve years, I still can't get it through my brain that every snow day is not the last one ever. For this reason, snow days totally throw me off my game.

The thoughts that run through my head every time we get that early morning auto-call that informs us of a delay or cancellation go something like this:

"It's a snow day! We can sleep in!"

"It's a snow day! Let's skip the morning workout and make cookies instead!"

"It's a snow day! Let's do nothing but watch movies and play video games (for the kids) or read (for me) all day long. Because relaxing is what you're supposed to do on a snow day and we will never have another opportunity to spend the entire day in our pajamas again."


I tell myself these lies every single time. And every time, I fall for them. When snow days happen several times per week, over the course of several weeks, it becomes a big problem. (Who knew?) So the past month has totally thrown me off my game. My body craves it's routine of an early morning workout and healthy food, while my head insists on skipping the workout and eating warm cookies all day instead. Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance! I can't miss out!

Of course my kids crave routine as well, even though they think they'd rather play video games all day. But there's another thing they crave almost as much--playing in the snow! (Gasp). Being a California girl, I hate being cold. Plus I'm a bit of a homebody anyway. So when it snows, I don't consider going outside to be a viable option. But my kids seem to think it's fun to get all dressed up until you can't move your limbs and then head outside and stay there until they're frozen solid. I really don't get it. They think hot cocoa afterward somehow makes the hours of freezing outside okay.

So my plea to the universe today... please make the snow days stop.

Okay, that's a little selfish because my kids love them. I'll try again:

Please help me remember that when the next snow day comes, it will not be the last one. I can still exercise, refuse to make cookies even when my kids strongly suggest it, and turn off the screens to play board games instead. And I will let my kids play outside when they ask, even though I know the mess they'll bring in when they're done will take several days to clean up completely.

Maybe I will even go outside. For, like, ten minutes or something. The rest of the time, I'm happy to watch from inside.

But please don't ask me to wake up early. Sleeping in on a snow day is mandatory.