Missing C. Peevie('s Help Around the House)

C. Peevie has been indisposed of late due to the inconvenient breaking of his tibia. And by inconvenient, I mean inconvenient to me.

Mr. Peevie and I believe that one great reason for having kids is that you can then put them to work around the house. Really, all they're doing is jobs that, for the most part, would not exist if they had not complicated the family by being born. That's kind of circular reasoning, isn't it? Oh well.

C. Peevie and his friends have discussed who does what chores at home, and it seems that C's friends are truly amazed at the frequency, variety and quantity of chores that he is responsible for. Mr. Peevie and I, on the other hand, are frequently amazed at how easy C. Peevie's friends reportedly get off in the chore department.

Before the whole broken leg fiasco, C. Peevie was enjoying his last month of freedom before school started up again after Labor Day. He'd hang out with friends, watch TV, play video games, and yes, he'd do chores for me.

One morning he had gone out with his peeps for a couple of hours, and then showed up back home just before lunch time. "I came home because I knew you'd want me to do some jobs around the house," said Captain Responsible. I was amazed and grateful.

"I told K-Lite and Lil' Biscuit that I had to come home and do chores," he continued, "and they couldn't believe it."

Why couldn't they believe it? I asked him.

"Because they can't believe how many chores I do," he said. "Lil' Biscuit says he only does chores on Saturdays, and K-Lite said he only does chores when there are things that need to be done." I don't know about K-Lite's only-child-single-mom household, but there are ALWAYS things to be done in our zoo of a household.

Here's the list of jobs that C. Peevie does at various times when he doesn't have a giant black cast up to his thigh:

Empty dishwasher
Load dishwasher
Wash dishes
Put away clean dishes in drainer
Take dirty laundry to basement
Sort laundry
Bring clean laundry up from dryer
Put own laundry away

(the more I typed the word "laundry" the weirder it looked to me.)

Clean up living room
Clean up dining room
Clean bedroom
Vaccuum
Mow lawn
Collect trash/all rooms
Empty kitchen trash daily
Sweep kitchen floor
Clear and clean kitchen table after meals

Of course, he doesn't do all of these jobs every day; but he does do jobs every day. When he doesn't have a broken leg. He does jobs to support the running of the household because he derives benefits from the running of the household. It just makes sense to me.

A. Peevie and M. Peevie do chores, too, but obviously, since they are 11 and 8, respectively, they do fewer chores, less often. I'm just now starting to shift some of C. Peevie's chores, like emptying the kitchen trash, emptying the dishwasher, and taking the laundry downstairs, to A. and M.

So what do you think? What's your philosophy on getting kids to help around the house? Are you going to call the Department of Labor and report us for violating child labor laws? Or are you even tougher than we are?

Maybe you can suggest some jobs that C. Peevie can do for me while he's in a giant black cast up to his thigh?