My father has been in the military for 30 years. His career has taken him and my family, to every corner of the world. The Air Force is a demanding career path to choose; often the spouse is left with the full weight of the chores to be done on the home front. During the course of my upbringing these duties were, in part, delegated to my sisters and I. While we never experienced “a life of almost tropical idleness’ (CITATION) like the children of Jane Smiley, we became effective and efficient members of our house hold. We learned to respect our house and our family. Though my sisters and I didn’t wake up smiling and ready to work, in the long run chores prepared us for the day we needed to maintain an organized lifestyle and living space of
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She did not have the luxury of hiring a maid to have our rooms “miraculously neat” (CITATION) when we returned from school. Between running errands, mirroring a taxi service for her kids, and earning what little income she could my mother did not have time to maintain an entire house while also cooking, cleaning, and washing for three children. Naturally, my sisters and I were tasked with daily, weekly, and monthly chores. These tasks increased in difficulty alongside our age; the more we were capable of, the more we were expected to do. While I was rarely eager to tackle the list, the chores instilled a sense of responsibility in me that I am forever grateful for. I also learned to respect my environment. My experience cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, and washing dishes after my sisters is something I consider when people do these things for me. I learned not to be one of the students that made ketchup designs on the lunch trays. I remember to genuinely thank the maids in hotels for folding my towels and straightening my room. From chores I learned to truly appreciate the work people do for me and how to reciprocate those efforts.
The skills and lessons I learned from chores remain with me today and have helped me get where I am. I attended a University and lived in a dorm for one year after high school. Some students were overwhelmed with how quickly their laundry piled up, how dirty their room became, and how often they needed to clean up after themselves. I, however, was well trained in how to manage my time. My transition from dependency to self-sufficiency was almost seamless all thanks to the chores I was assigned as a child. Likewise, maintaining my house now brings no stress to my
She did not have the luxury of hiring a maid to have our rooms “miraculously neat” (CITATION) when we returned from school. Between running errands, mirroring a taxi service for her kids, and earning what little income she could my mother did not have time to maintain an entire house while also cooking, cleaning, and washing for three children. Naturally, my sisters and I were tasked with daily, weekly, and monthly chores. These tasks increased in difficulty alongside our age; the more we were capable of, the more we were expected to do. While I was rarely eager to tackle the list, the chores instilled a sense of responsibility in me that I am forever grateful for. I also learned to respect my environment. My experience cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, and washing dishes after my sisters is something I consider when people do these things for me. I learned not to be one of the students that made ketchup designs on the lunch trays. I remember to genuinely thank the maids in hotels for folding my towels and straightening my room. From chores I learned to truly appreciate the work people do for me and how to reciprocate those efforts.
The skills and lessons I learned from chores remain with me today and have helped me get where I am. I attended a University and lived in a dorm for one year after high school. Some students were overwhelmed with how quickly their laundry piled up, how dirty their room became, and how often they needed to clean up after themselves. I, however, was well trained in how to manage my time. My transition from dependency to self-sufficiency was almost seamless all thanks to the chores I was assigned as a child. Likewise, maintaining my house now brings no stress to my