I don't think I have done 19 chores this month! Seriously, this weekend I bought groceries and hand washed some clothes. There must be a happy medium. I am wondering, if doing their own laundry or getting meals together is a thing to start with for the kids. I did my own laundry starting at 12 because my mom messed it up. But those things have immediate personal consequences and are essential things to know how to do once they are in college.

Timelies all!

Went over to Gatineau, where we went to the MosaiCanada exhibit at Parc Jacques-Cartier. Lots and lots of topiary. Got lunch, then hit the Canadian Museum of History, where we walked around various exhibits for a few hours. Back at the hotel, we are tired, except for Mr. S who is jumping up and down in the crib.

I did my own laundry starting at 12 because my mom messed it up.

I did my own laundry starting at 10 or 12 because my mom made me do it. And I started doing dishes at 10 because my mom cooked dinner and 10 is old enough to wash the damn dishes. I imagine it's even easier these days if you have a dishwasher to load.

My kids did their laundry and other chores early because DH and I both worked! Who has time for that stuff? They still didn't do anywhere near as many chores as I did as a kid, and my mom was a stay at home mom. I've always had a cleaning person regularly because the floors and bathrooms would never be clean otherwise.

mac does his own laundry and he has to do 1 chore a day in order to get wireless access. Now his chores are easy - vacuum 2 rooms, take out recycling bin and bring it back in... - but it is something and with only 2 of us, it keeps the house basically manageable if I do a bit on the weekends.

When I was a kid, my sister and I would trade off each night, one of us setting the table before dinner and the other clearing the table, putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, and putting the leftovers in the fridge. I didn't start doing my own laundry until high school, but that was partially because our laundry room was in the basement, and the stairs to get there are steep and have a weird corner, and I couldn't really carry a laundry basket up and down the stairs safely. I did usually have to fold my own clothes after an adult washed them, though. I think my mom started having us kids fold the easy things, like towels and pillowcases, when we were preschoolers.

Being old, there was no permanent press type clothes as a kid, so we had to iron our laundry too!

Family laundry was also my main chore, starting in I think 5th grade?

I didn't do any chores because Mother kept saying "You're not doing that right, here, let me do it." We may have wandered in to help with laundry occasionally, but it wasn't anything that was assigned. Sometimes we'd ask to make dinner, but it wasn't a regular thing. The only thing we had to do was take care of the garden in the summer.

I started doing the laundry and all other household chores that weren't cooking or gardening when I was 9.