Chore Time with Children

Summer and fall are the busiest time of year for me. There's just so much food to be planted, harvested, prepped, cooked, canned, and otherwise dealt with, in addition to laundry to be hung out and animals to water and the dog pen to mow and . . . well. There's a lot to do.

And now I have a toddler. This toddler spends all his waking hours running around trying to hurt himself, break things, make a mess--often all three at the same time--and so must be constantly monitored. It's harder for me to get my work done when I have to be in a state of high alert with him at all times. But I have too much to do to only work when he's asleep, since that's only about four hours of my day. So I have learned what I can do when he's awake, and what really needs to wait until he's asleep. These thoughtfully planned and executed posts* I write for you every day? They do not happen when the child is awake.

The following things that I did yesterday are also designated Cubby-free jobs:

1) Gathering mulberries--far, far too messy for a child Cubby's age. The laundry that would result makes me quail.

2) Making juice from the mulberries--see above.

3) Staking tomatoes--sharp scissors hanging around, plus a ball of twine that would disappear within seconds to be unraveled all over the garden, plus an enclosed space in which every inch is covered in plants that I really don't want trampled all adds up to "naptime only chore."

4) Watering the garden--takes too long, makes too much mud, and once again, the strong possibility of plants being trampled by Cubby the Destroyer.

5) Doing dishes--too boring for Cubby, as he can't see what I'm doing, plus the kitchen is rife with opportunities to cause trouble (grabbing things off the liquor cabinet, taking bottles out of the cupboards that can't be fastened because of 100 years of paint layers, dumping the dogs' water dish).

Things I can do with Cubby in attendance, albeit more slowly and with a lot more interruptions? Also things I actually did yesterday:

1) Wash the window screen for drying herbs.

2) Cut oregano and pull off the leaves to put on the screen and put in the car for drying.

3) Spread an old straw bale on the floor in the chick cottage.

4) Re-fill the food and water in the chick cottage.

5) Haul in cinder blocks to put the food and water on in the chick cottage because the straw makes the ground in the cottage too uneven and everything spills.

6) Water flowers with the last of the water from the trash can that serves as a rain barrel and then empty the trash can to discourage mosquitoes.

7) Hang laundry.

8) Weed wherever I happen to be standing, because there's always something to be weeded wherever I happen to be standing.

9) Pull the dead peonies off the peony bushes.

10) Pick up large chunks of wood in the way on the beach and chuck them in the firepit.

I'm sure there was more, but you get the idea. There is a division of labor, but the labor never stops--it just changes depending on the company I keep.

And on that note, Cubby is asleep and I must run outside to mulch the potatoes. Because Cubby+sheep-shit straw? Bad idea.

* This is what is known in the trade** as "heavy sarcasm."

** I have no idea what "trade" I'm referring to there. Professional busllshitting, perhaps.