the Second Job

I have had so many friends ask why my kids do jobs without complaining.  I think it all boils down to a rule in our house.  We have had it for years now.  If you complain at all, you get an additional job.  You complain about that, and you get another.  Stephen and I have always been very consistent on this.

In the world you can’t complain to a boss about your workload or else you would get replaced by someone who IS willing to do the work.  You have to do it to keep your job.  You can’t complain to a coach about participating in drills or sprints.  That doesn’t show that you are willing to work hard for your team.  You can’t complain to a teacher for an assignment or not do the assignment.  The teacher would fail you.  You have to just DO IT!  Complaining does nothing but make the situation worse.

I feel like with the rule we have had in our home, it helps the kids in the real world.  Sure they can complain and freak out in their head that they have work to do, but don’t complain out loud to me.  Sometimes they will start to say something or give me an upset face, and all I have to do is ask them “if they are wanting an extra job after they are done with the first” and they are VERY quick to say they aren’t complaining at all.  They know I will enforce that.

The extra job is usually something easy, but it takes up time that they could have had.

The important rule as with most rules, is consistency.