Responsibility

We're trying to help teach the kids about responsibility, we started with a chore list that they were responsible for doing small things around the house on the weekdays and then a more thorough cleaning on Sunday, like cleaning your room, dusting, sorting your laundry ~ everything a parent dreams of their child doing when they reach a certain age. :)

Now Claire got her first pet when she turned 5, it was a hamster that she named Elvis whom she adored and I have to admit, turned out to be the best dang hamster ever. He never once tried to bite any of the kids and allowed them to dress him up in tiny doll clothes and ran through out the dollhouse they'd stick him in. Elvis lived longer than any hamster I had ever known and we were sad when the little guy died.

Now everyone knows that I am a huge animal lover, the more the merrier I say but it can get a little over whelming at times. We have 3 dogs, 2 cats, and now 2 fish named Goldie and Sparkles. You see, Taylor really wanted a pet for his room and we felt it was time for him to be responsible for his very own living & breathing friend. He actually wanted a lizard but Bryan put his foot down saying they were smelly and I think he also knew he'd be stuck cleaning out the tank and such seeing as how I am scared of them.

They came to an agreement for Taylor to have his very own mini aquarium with the two calico goldfish mentioned above, the names I will have you know he picked out all on his own. We got them home from the pet store and Bryan went about putting the tank together with Taylor watching his every move and while he did all of it, he told Taylor how to care for his fish and gave him strict directions to only feed the fish once a day, and how much.

Two days later I noticed the fish food open next to the tank, lid off, so I went to chastise Bryan about not putting things back and he said he and Taylor had fed the fish that morning and he knew he had put the lid back on. We called Taylor into his room to ask about the opened fish food and he bursts into tears.

Bryan: "Calm down son, you're not in trouble we're just asking about the food. Did you feed the fish again?"

Taylor: *Tears streaming down his face* "Yes, because they were looking at me with their mouths open so I knew they must still be hungry."