Cotton Jenny(s) & Cotton Jimmy

When I was growing up, one of my household responsibilities was cleaning the house. Most every week I was expected to get out the broom, mop, vaccum & rags and get down on my hands and knees and do hard labor. I used to tease my mom that I was "Cotton Jenny", a song by Anne Murray (country singer from Canada) which she sings about a young lady: "Cotton Jenny's her name and she worked all day until the sun went down....". Sometimes I even put the handerkerchief on my head to fully play out the Cotton Jenny role. Seriously, it was a great life lesson and I learned how to clean house very well without cutting corners. AND, I was rewarded with a generous allowance so I had my own spending/saving money. Thanks mom!

Fast forward to 2009. We have a few household chores at Camp Clark that LTD are expected to do every day: make beds, clean up their toys throughout the house, clean up their rooms, clear off the table after meals and help with folding towels on laundry days. Pretty basic chores and they are pretty good at getting them done without TOO much prompting. Yesterday was cleaning day and I had 3 little people following me around EAGER to help. SWEET! So I decided it was time I start creating my own Cotton Jenny(s) and Cotton Jimmy and put them to work. Dylan helped vaccuum, Lindsey helped dust and Taylor helped wipe down windows. They were AWESOME!! Granted not perfect, but good enough for me and I didn't even have to go over their work (my standards have lowered on the cleaning front these days). They are already getting a weekly allowance which is not directly tied to chores but is just part of "Camp Clark Way" so I gave them each an extra quarter for the additional work they did to let them know how much I appreciated it. They were SO excited and so proud of themselves (as was I). I know I can most likely rely on them again next time we clean......in 3 months (just kidding!). I really do dislike cleaning house but at least I know I have Cotton Jenny(s) & Cotton Jimmy to help out now and learn their own life lessons about responsibility. Pay it forward.