I had a terribly productive day yesterday. I got my car inspected, took several walks, wrote about 1000 words in addition to a blog post, cleaned my bathroom and made granola. I also had a very busy night at work.
Because I dropped the car off early, the kids had to make their way to school on foot. It twas a long treacherous journey of .8 miles. A circuitous route flanked on all sides by the terror of tidy lawns, pretty flowers and an assortment of song birds. The possibility of a small rain shower made the children's journey even more forbidding.
Seriously, based on their reactions when I informed them that we were walking to school, you would have thought that I had just asked them to take a small kitten and drown it in the toilet.
This got me to thinking about being in a position in life of having to tell a lot of people what to do. Between my kids, my dad and work, it's quite often. I have a general rule I always follow. This is, I never ever ask anyone to do anything that I myself haven't done before or would do myself. Usually, if it's a pretty heinous thing that requires doing (my job involves heinous unmentionables at times) I usually end up doing it. I feel it's fair.
There are many times when I will ask someone to do a menial task and their reaction is the same as the kid's reaction yesterday. My new mantra at these moments is to say, "I am asking you to do _______, not beat a bag of puppies to death with a baseball bat. Please do it.
It is astounding how little people are willing to do when asked. It's sad really.
Happily, walking to school was nice. I regret not doing it more this year. I will be taking advantage of these last weeks of school to walk with them. They'll get over it and used to it I'm sure. Perhaps they might even start to enjoy it. Especially if I give them the option-
You're walking or the kitten gets it.
Anyone out there has a kitten they want to lend me until the 14th?
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