balance

Nothing to do with what I want to say. Just a great (meaning ridiculous) email.
I received an email this morning from a coworker. This is not even close to being the first email like the following. And this colleague is a former English teacher. Maybe there's a reason unnamed left that profession.

My mailbox is full every other day and this project was done for last fall so No emails here. We only reproduced it because the [company] ran out of stock. I don’t believe it was to be a continuous this really.

"I don’t believe it was to be a continuous this really." Don't be fooled, the period at the end of this string of words does not make this a sentence. And I'm not one to always stay within the rules for writing but at least it makes sense.

And while I'm on the subject of writing, I have another friend that currently teaches 8th grade English. I witnessed the grading of some papers this past spring. One particular student wrote a one page paper, maybe two, about Martin Luther King, Jr. However, he was referred to as MLK every time throughout the paper. EVERY time. Ummm, that's not good. That's like a sports article about a game that never gives the score or winner.

Smooth segue.


Get back to work kid.

Wife and I are loving our time with the kiddo. Growing, smiling, laughing, grabbing, wobbling, playing, exploring. We spent Friday evening at a high school basketball game and as far as I could tell he was watching the game. So cool.

Wife and I love picturing our hopes for him and the rest of the clan as it grows. One thing we have begun to discuss is money and chores. And how it will relate to their view of Father. We want them to know (as I do) that Father loves them lavishly and he gives freely. So we know that at least initially we model the Father for them.

So how do you balance this with teaching them work, responsibility, perseverance, doing something well?

Our current thought goes something like this. As parents, we give them money when they need it or when we want to. We buy them stuff when they need it or we want to. We lavish our love on them. We give freely. We do NOT pay for helping around the house. We separate giving and receiving from doing or accomplishment. They need to be untied within the family.

But as friends of families with children, we invite these kids over to help with chores and pay them. Would you mow my lawn for $15? Would you shovel my snowy driveway for $10? Would you take out and bring in our trash cans for $2? And hopefully they do the same for our kids.

This way we've created some separation between how they receive from their parents but they also learn about work. What are your thoughts on this?

How does one as a parent balance this with doing necessary chores around the house? Do we demand their help? That doesn't seem to line up. Do we as parents just take on that responsibility? Will that be one part of modeling Father and sacrificial love? I suppose my hope is that they love being with me or their mother and would like to be with us while we happen to be doing chores. Win-win.

I really would like some feedback on this one. Especially if you are already a parent.