Prompt #3

"Describe your year(s) as a child...did you help with yard work? Make a diagram of it."

Okay, first off, I'm not going to be making any diagram. I don't really even know what that means.

Second, I had a great childhood. My parents required all of us (me, my 5 older brothers, my oldest sister, and my younger brother and sister) to work, inside and outside. For example, my mom assigned each of us, among other things, 1 hour of weeding per day (my parents had/have a huge - HUGE - yard). She saw nothing amiss with the expectation that we get up at 6 a.m. during the summer to get our weeding done before it got hot. We also had an enormous garden that we had to water/weed/tend, which was great fun with my brothers who had fabulous imaginations (they turned everything into a game). We also had to water trees around the perimeter of our yard, which involved the very easy albeit time-consuming task of lugging a hose to each tree and waiting about 10 minutes per tree to fill the dirt "bowls" so the trees would thrive. That took about 3-4 hours to get all the trees. We dug all the ditches for and put in the 13+ line sprinkler system, picked produce from 10+ fruit trees and our garden, mowed sections of the yard (it was too big to do by oneself, or in one day)...then we tackled our inside chores (we each had sections of the house assigned to us to clean, in addition to our bedrooms. I had the bathrooms, including the boys' bathroom. Ew.). Basically, we were slave labor. That was us.

In fairness, though, it wasn't torture. My parents were the epitome of hard workers. They also loved and thoroughly enjoyed a well-deserved relaxation/rest time once the work was done -- we all did. We'd go swimming until dark, play/hang out with friends or each other, play army or build dirt caves, read, nap, make movies, bake cookies, play night games, pretty much whatever we wanted. I'd say there was a great balance between work and play.

This is making me feel a bit guilty...I don't think I'm instilling a very good work ethic in my kids. But, yes, my childhood was one I look back on with extreme fondness.