Mt. Pleasant Classical Academy

From the beginning of our parenting days we have firmly believed that kids could do many jobs around the house, and that they would benefit greatly by working with us. We followed the adage that if something needed to be done, we all worked to get the job completed. Afterall, we all live in our home and we all would do the necessary work that needed to be done. However, we never assigned chores or made out a chore list. I really saw no need for it. For instance when the bathrooms need to be cleaned I’ve left it up to the boys to decide who does which task or which bathroom. Same with cleaning common areas in the house or performing outside jobs. I have visited homes and seen one child who is dusting, vacuuming, mopping the kitchen floor while the other kids are watching tv or playing pc games because it was that child’s day to do the house chores. That doesn’t happen in our home, we are a team and we work together, and play together.

For us though the boys haven’t just joined in on the household chores but have helped tremendously on the many remodeling and maintenance jobs around the home over the years. These have ranged from replacing the cars brakes to laying patio tile to tearing out the old kitchen earlier in the summer. So when my friend Michele sent me a link to The Washington Posts article about how important it is to challenge teenagers to do HARD THINGS I just sat and chuckled. Look at the latest task the boys have been given.

Located just off our kitchen is a half-bath with fixtures that DH just doesn’t care for. Its days are numbered but for six long years I have looked at the previous owner’s paint job and wanted to change it. DH asked me to wait, wait till the kitchen is being done. Its days are over.

Boys the toilet must go.

DH loves fine cabinet work, and this one just didn’t have a chance.

Boys the cabinet must go.

We have new ideas for how this half-bath will look and gave the boys the responsibility of gutting the room. They have handled the task from beginning to end.  Today they tackled the tile floor.

“Teens are extraordinarily competent.”

Taking out all these fixtures and the floor tile is a hard thing that has taken taken them out of their comfort zone. .

Teamwork and collaboration — just look at this 16yo and 12yo working together to get a tough job done.

Ever tear out a bathroom toilet, not very exciting but it will build character.  Maybe this is why we haven’t experienced teenage rebellion although they did try to rebel about this job.  Neither one ever wants to do this job again but they got this hard thing done. 

Tomorrow they lay tile and put the room back together.