Summer Jobs

Summer has arrived at the Kocsis Household. It may not be summer on the calendar but school is out! The kids are sleeping in (well the teenager is anyway), staying up late & enjoying every moment in between.

I remember these days as a child. The monotony of school was broken with the excitement of summer. I have clear memories of swimming at the base pool, having to pass the test to dive off of the diving board; taking our bikes to the shoppette to buy candy; playing on our slip and slide in the backyard; or jumping off the deck (as a teenager) to land in a little kids pool. Pure glee!

There was something else that came with each summer... Summer jobs. Before employment was an option my mom put us to work. She had a list. We got to pick from the list what we "wanted" to do. There were things like washing the dog; crawling into stinky garbage cans and washing them out with pine-sol; washing windows, floors, sidewalks, etc etc. They weren't exactly fun ... and as we got older there was more and more groaning involved. But it was standard. Part of life. An important lesson our mom was trying to instill - that life isn't purely about fun or sitting around moaning "there's nothing to do" [it did happen on occasion as I recall ;)], and that we were a part of the household. (And to be honest, it kept fights and idleness at bay. Idle / bored siblings tends to equal squabbles.)

So the Summer Jobs at the Kocsis household have begun. I had a spiral notebook in the closet that I pulled out and wrote out jobs that need to get done for the week. My boys are at child-care twice a week so those two days don't count. But the other three days they have to pick something from the list. It is a bit of work for me because I have to supervise, teach, help. It's part of being a mother after all. When they are done they get to cross the job off of the list with triumph!

When my 4 year-old was done washing the sliding glass door in the kitchen this morning he proclaimed (rather stubbornly) "I WANT ANOTHER SUMMER JOB!" Although it made me chuckle, it also made me happy. Kids like being busy, helping, being a part of 'progress'.

So to my own mom, "Thanks!" Thanks for instilling the need to a part of the house at a young age! I hope my children will some day appreciate it like I do now.

- Leanne from MilitaryAvenue.com