Teach Your Children Well

Sometimes I used to feel like I was ruining some poor girls future life because of the way I do everything for Chase. I am trying to not do so much for him because I don't want him to be one of "those" guys. Those who don't know how to put a dish in the dishwasher or pick up their clothes off the floor or find the littlest thing. There was a long time I did all these things for him, you know, because he's Chase, but lately I have really been trying to make him do things for himself. He can be really lazy. He also has the habit of not being able to complete the entire task by himself, for instance, if I ask him to go get his socks and shoes on, he will say, "Okay, can you get socks for me?" Um, no. That's part of the whole deal. You get the socks, you get the shoes, you put them on. No part of that involves me. So anyway, he's doing okay with it. He still tries to get me to do whatever he can get away with but he does pretty well. So, last night he went with his buddies Ethan and Jack and Ethan's dad Dr. Dave to the Philadelphia Soul game. Marc stayed home and I went out with my friends. At 11:30 Chase calls my cell phone. "Mom." he says, "I still didn't have dinner and I am hungry." I say, "Tell Daddy honey." "Daddy's sleeping and I don't want to wake him up." So I try and give him suggestions, a banana, some grapes, a cheese stick. No. No. No. He wants dinner. So he opens the freezer and says,"How about cream chipped beef?" Hmm? I think he's up to it. So I tell him to get it out and poke some holes in it. He microwaves it. He makes the toast. He did a really good job. You know what he didn't do? Put the dish in the sink, but I'm okay with that. I was very proud of him.