Last week, I informed my five-year-old that the coming Monday was Memorial Day. I told him daddy has a day off work, and his brother doesn’t need to go to school. “And I’m going to have the day off from washing dishes!” he informed me.
We heard that refrain a few more times on the weekend, that Monday he gets a day off from doing the dishes. That’s like the only consistent chore he has, washing dishes once a week. Generally, he still enjoys it. What powerful cultural forces are at work here?
After breakfast on Monday morning, I insisted that he march into the kitchen and get the dishes washed. “Why?” he whined.
“Because we didn’t take the day off from eating.”
Isn’t it better to learn these lessons when one is young?
first teacher 
Fantastic response you had! Makes sense!
And he didn’t really mind once he got started…he played with the bubbles in the sink, as usual.
We sometimes sound a lot like dad, don’t you think? I thought we should celebrate Labor Day by relaxing, he thought it was a good day for work.
You are right. And I may have even repeated that one about labor day before 🙂