The Old Lady's Spot: Every Job

We have a problem with giving Michael "chores." It is not that he doesn't love doing them, he genuinely does, but everyone EVERYONE has gone to his head.

It began with feeding the kitties. Oh my stars did he love this. This was around 16 months. he would beg at the top of the steps that they needed food. This job was allowed for about 2 weeks. It ended when I asked him to feed the cats while I rotated laundry loads. He was taking the remaining food piece by piece out of their dish. The was running after them holding it yelling "here kitty eat." There is a large run at our house of no chasing kitties or yelling at them no matter who's child it is.

So we modified the feeding job. We now needed constant adult supervision for it. This was good for a few weeks until we determined the best way to fill the dish was one piece at a time out of the bucket, which reminded us of the running and we had a repeat incidence.

About 18 months we progressed to treat. Which worked real well until the chasing started again and we found them hidden in his pockets.

About 20 months he had the task of throwing things away for us. This was about 3 months before it went to his head. Here I am in the small bathroom getting ready only to hear Michael yelling "away, away." This is the trowing away chant. I can hear him running back and forth across the kitchen and then I hear the distinct crinkle of a pad wrapper. Apparently the large bathroom garbage was full and Michael being the trash police decided to empty it for me, buy running across the house holding piece by piece he pick out and throwing it in the big can.

We took a break from jobs until this Monday. The new job was putting away his laundry. That lasted 4 days. After exiting the small bathroom I found him running through the kitchen with the pillowcase of his I just folded. I asked if he unfolded it and was told "no away come here." This was what I found: