Hiring Family!

It seemed so simple really.  For our son we did things the same way they were done to for us--you go to college, you get a job.

As I always say when I speak--our son could have been raised by wolves and would have done well on the SATs.  He's a born student.

Our daughter, on the other hand, was born for life after school.  If you give her a problem, she can come up with 3 solutions--all good.  If you give her a test, or even say the words test, midterm or final; her brain falls out and she'll pick it up on her way out of the room.  I have Facebook friends who have taught her in college who can verify this.  She couldn't handle the hours that would be required of a job AND maintain her 4.0.  She spends a good amount of time on her classes and never misses an extra credit assignment.  She's good like that!

So, I thought it would be brilliant to expect her to help around the house more.  I had a LIST of chores that I wanted help with.  I hate to paint and repair things, she excels at it.

Over time though, I noticed she had time for her downtime, but kept forgetting my list.  It just wasn't important to her.  Since our deal was now defunct, I told her it was time for her to get a job.

Remember what I told you about her problem solving skills?  She put them to good use that day!  We negotiated a deal where she now pays for all of her school materials, and I pay her minimum wage for doing my chore list (remember that we were paying for her books anyway).  She figured out how many hours she needed to work each week to pay for her fall books (8).  If she works over that, she's ahead for next semester.

So far the bathroom walls have been repaired and are half painted.  The shower head has been replaced.  The kitchen cabinets have been checked for expired foods.  The lawn is mowed, edged and halfway weeded (rain affected that chore).  And the list continues....

Now the only trick will be to figure out how to make her wedding vows be to "love, honor and cherish...sickness and health...yada, yada...and always live next door to her parents".

Feeling blessed, how about you?