Or Deadhead Your Kids.
Just pick one and commit.
Kids are out of school. At our house that means that I attempt to include them in the household chores. Now, I could go on and on about the various angles I have taken over the years on this subject. But I can tell you this:
None of them are fool proof.
Not punishment, not reward. Not the very real threat of death.
The last couple years I have settled on a list. I write down about 4 or 5 things that need doing, that won’t require an hour of my time explaining, troubleshooting and overseeing. Let me tell you, that doesn’t leave much. They each get their own list which results in about 30 minutes of insane bickering. That is when an audio book and headphones comes in handy.
Anyway, I haven’t quite settled into the routine yet. I’m suffering a powerful lack of motivation. No motivation, even, to crack the whip with the kids. However I did manage, a couple days ago, to get them to go out back behind the barn to cut off the dead peonies. I armed them each with a set of pruners and a rubber tub. It took them less time than I thought it would have, and they dumped the trimmings into the compost pile. Of course, they were supposed to put the buckets away and I found one blown into the weeds and the other on top of my baby bush bean plants, but all in all, I was pretty happy.
That was two days ago.
Today, I went out back to deal with chickens and saw this.
Aside from the Weber, which has no business being there (same goes for the OxiClean bucket), the view made me gasp. My peonies! What happened?!
I asked the kids to “dead head” the peonies. Clip the dead flowers off. Make sure they weren’t drooping over the wall…
What in tarnation?
[Aside: my distinct Western Twang is on account of the book I am reading. I’m a “Method reader” — taking on the language and characteristics of my protagonists. Therefore today, I am Sarah Agnes Prine of Sarah’s Quilt. If you are new to this site, don’t worry, I’m almost done with the book. Then I’ll go back to my Minnesota accent.]It was a bad year for peonies through and through.
It was a really bad year for my peonies.
Meredehuit♥ says
Oh the stories this grandmother could tell! I love your post, brings back memories. 🙂
carina says
GOD you are so funny! I love this…. so typical! but are they going to be okay? (the peonies I mean).
Sherry Borzo says
After I laughed my head off I felt compelled to offer a suggestion. Mind you, this is an idea born out of no good use of such an idea as I was a complete failure in the chores department with my kids. Thank goodness they took on some of their own rearing as a last resort.
Anyhow, perhaps when assigning lists to the kiddos you should require that they do their research as to “how to” do the task. Gives them a reason to google and read something. Isn’t that a handy payoff for summer activity?
I was wondering about “deadheading” myself and went to eHow. Hello??!! What’s this? An entry on peonies and deadheading. http://www.ehow.com/how_2341813_deadhead-peonies.html. Interesting. I think I would have done what your kids decided to do in any case. Seems close enough.
Jackie says
Oh my – I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time! Thanks for the humor – what a great post.
My kids never were too interested in gardening (beyond picking and eating the produce before it got to the table) and probably would have done the same thing. They were good at cleaning toilets though. They’re grown now and the eldest daughter is showing promise of being an organic container gardener.
Good thing peonies are so hardy – I’m sure they’ll come back just fine next year.
allyn | allthingsami says
hilarious! kids are so helpful in the worst + best ways. : )
admin says
I bet! I have another one to add, only it’s pretty grizzly. It involves Morgan (15 yr girl) “taking care” of the mean rooster (because she likes him) and his lame (only the use of one leg) hen. Yesterday I thought, “you know, maybe I should just go back there and have a look around to make sure she’s doing everything OK.” To make a long story short: I found the lame hen not only dead, but crawling with maggots. Which means that she has been dead at LEAST 3 or 4 days. that’s 75% of the time of being under Morgan’s loving and tender care. Don’t worry, I’ve still got about 4 years left with her. We’re going back to cabbage patch kids and Dressy Bessies. Maybe I can plant some nurturing instinct in there somewhere…
amy hall says
I am sorry for you. Those wonderful peonies. Great thing about them is that they will grow back. Luckily, they left some leaves that would carry some food to the roots.
Did it leaf some more? I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.
Paula says
Very funny, I always wondered what the taking on the accent of a character was called, now I know. Ja, I’m a “method reader” also.