Helping around the House
There are a lot of chores that need to be done to keep a house and yard neat and to feed a family. So when I was little, my brother and sister and I had chores to do.
When my brother was very little, sometimes my sister and I would keep an I on him while my mother was busy in the house. We had a friend down the street who had 7 younger sisters and brothers. She spent all her spare time helping with babies. We had a much easier time, with only one little brother to take care of.
We would take Arny for a walk in his stroller or keep an eye on him while he played in his play-pen. Sometimes we didn't do a very good job. One time we decided it would be fun to tie his stroller to the back of our bicycle and give him a ride down the driveway. Fortunately my mother noticed us before we really did it. The stroller could have tipped over and he would have been hurt.
In the house, one of our chores was to dust the dining room table. The table was made of dark wood and showed every spec of dust. It needed to be dusted every day. It was hard to get all the dust off, and as soon as we were done, it started to get dusty again. In my house now, I have mostly light colored wood, because even when it's dusty, it's hard to see the dust.
We also would help to sweep the kitchen floor or the front porch. I don't think we helped with the vacuum cleaner, but we used the broom.
We also helped with the dishes. My sister dried the dishes and I dried the silverware.
When Mommy baked cake or cookies, sometimes we would grease the pans--there was no Teflon then. Sometimes we would sift flour and baking powder with the flour sifter. I would rather have helped more with mixing up the batter or dough. I did learn to crack eggs and separate them. We never cracked the eggs directly into the bowl, for fear of getting egg shells in the food, or discovering that an egg was bloody or rotten when it was too late to get rid of it.
We also had to clean our rooms sometimes. I don't think I was very neat about it. But we knew to throw our clothes down the clothes chute, not just to leave them on the floor.
Outside, we would help with raking leaves in the fall, so that Daddy could burn them up. In summer, we would pick up sticks or pull a few weeds.
We also would help to wash the car. We would wash the wheels, or wipe the car with a chamois.
Our Mom and Dad worked hard around the house and didn't expect us to do very much. Sometimes when I got to be a teenager, I would offer to help with washing the dishes. Mom would say "You'll have plenty of dishes to wash when you have your own house, so let me do these now and you can keep your hands smooth and nice". But now I have a dishwasher, and besides, Grandpa does a lot of the dishwashing so I don't have to wash many dishes at all.
When my brother was very little, sometimes my sister and I would keep an I on him while my mother was busy in the house. We had a friend down the street who had 7 younger sisters and brothers. She spent all her spare time helping with babies. We had a much easier time, with only one little brother to take care of.
We would take Arny for a walk in his stroller or keep an eye on him while he played in his play-pen. Sometimes we didn't do a very good job. One time we decided it would be fun to tie his stroller to the back of our bicycle and give him a ride down the driveway. Fortunately my mother noticed us before we really did it. The stroller could have tipped over and he would have been hurt.
In the house, one of our chores was to dust the dining room table. The table was made of dark wood and showed every spec of dust. It needed to be dusted every day. It was hard to get all the dust off, and as soon as we were done, it started to get dusty again. In my house now, I have mostly light colored wood, because even when it's dusty, it's hard to see the dust.
We also would help to sweep the kitchen floor or the front porch. I don't think we helped with the vacuum cleaner, but we used the broom.
We also helped with the dishes. My sister dried the dishes and I dried the silverware.
When Mommy baked cake or cookies, sometimes we would grease the pans--there was no Teflon then. Sometimes we would sift flour and baking powder with the flour sifter. I would rather have helped more with mixing up the batter or dough. I did learn to crack eggs and separate them. We never cracked the eggs directly into the bowl, for fear of getting egg shells in the food, or discovering that an egg was bloody or rotten when it was too late to get rid of it.
We also had to clean our rooms sometimes. I don't think I was very neat about it. But we knew to throw our clothes down the clothes chute, not just to leave them on the floor.
Outside, we would help with raking leaves in the fall, so that Daddy could burn them up. In summer, we would pick up sticks or pull a few weeds.
We also would help to wash the car. We would wash the wheels, or wipe the car with a chamois.
Our Mom and Dad worked hard around the house and didn't expect us to do very much. Sometimes when I got to be a teenager, I would offer to help with washing the dishes. Mom would say "You'll have plenty of dishes to wash when you have your own house, so let me do these now and you can keep your hands smooth and nice". But now I have a dishwasher, and besides, Grandpa does a lot of the dishwashing so I don't have to wash many dishes at all.
posted by Story Time at 6:18 PM
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