Keeping Up With Our Work

This past summer, I implemented a chores system for Samuel and Avery. Part of their new chores included cleaning their rooms. I didn't care how they cleaned it, just as long as they did it. Samuel would go into his room, and would take 1 toy at a time, and would put it away in it's proper place. It never would take him very long though, because his room always pretty much stays fairly clean, because that's how Samuel likes it. Avery, on the other hand, would go into her room, walk right down the middle, and would push the toys off to the side using her feet. She would "make a path" and announce that she was done cleaning her room. And although the point of this was to allow them some independence when it came to their own room, as well as teaching them to take responsibility for their own things, Avery's room gradually became more and more unorganized and cluttered. I finally broke down yesterday and cleaned it. I couldn't take it anymore! Isaac and I stayed in her room for around an hour, getting things back to a state of cleanliness that I could be content with. Isaac was sitting in a chair at Avery's table in her room. I watched him get on the chair, and then off again. On, off, on, off... He would pretend to type something on her computer and then he would get off the chair and go to her kitchen set and would start to move things around. He'd go back and sit in the chair and would type some more on the computer. Then he'd get down again and go to her bookshelf and move some things around. And then it dawned on me. This is a game that Isaac and Avery would play together. She would pretend that she was the Mommy, and Isaac was her son. She would type on the computer the list of chores that needed to be done that day, and then Isaac would need to go clean it. I know! Poor 3rd child... But Isaac never complained about it. In fact, he always seemed to like it. And so Isaac was playing this little "game" all by himself yesterday. And when I caught onto it, I started playing with him, and it seemed to make him really happy. For all of the times I've had to tell Avery to be nice to her baby brother, and to put him down, and to give him back that toy, and to play with him softly, and to stop making him do her chores, the bottom line is that she really does love her baby brother and he really misses her. I can tell. So, yesterday afternoon when Avery got home from school and went into her room, she of course noticed immediately that her room had been cleaned. I told her that Isaac had played their "chores game" while she was at school. Avery got a huge grin on her face and said to Isaac "Oh, Bubba! I am so happy to see that you are thinking about me while I'm at school, and that you are keeping up with our work." She gave him a big hug, and I left the room while they played the "chores game" together. That's okay, really. I don't need to get credit for being the one who cleaned her room. Just seeing the look in Avery's eyes, and hearing her tell Isaac that she was thinking about him too during the day, was all that I needed at that moment. I'll let Bubba get all the credit for "keeping up with our work."