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"I have had enough! It&amp;#039;s high time for me to put on my Mommy britches and crack the whip on my kids. I am hereby enforcing some new Child Labor Laws! I realized last weekend that I seem to be spending the bulk of my kid-free time either cleaning, mowing, raking, weeding, folding, picking stuff up or operating an appliance that assists in the cleaning process. Other than an occasional movie on Netflix, I don&amp;#039;t do much for me when they&amp;#039;re gone. And I had such grand plans, originally. I was going to brush up on my Spanish, learn salsa dancing, scrapbooking, and sewing. I was going to take short road trips to interesting places, bike, hike, walk on the beach. Sure I was. Just as soon as I was done with the laundry, the dusting, the weed-whacking\u2026. The problem is, I do very little in the way of chores when the kids are home. I&amp;#039;m a firm believer in stepping over a laundry basket to go blow bubbles with my kid, but there has to be a balance. Every weekend they&amp;#039;re here we&amp;#039;re doing fun activities and silly stuff, but no household upkeep, and it shows. I told Anna yesterday that the house is starting to look like we&amp;#039;re filming an episode of Hoarders! I think this weekend, we&amp;#039;re all going to pitch in together. David loves to vaccuum, and Anna can certainly pick up some things and dust. Both kids can put their laundry in their dresser drawers, once I&amp;#039;ve folded and sorted it. Maybe I&amp;#039;ll make a contest out of who can pull the most weeds. They&amp;#039;ve had a free pass around here for a bit too long, and I&amp;#039;m putting my foot down. Besides, once everything is clean, we&amp;#039;ll have room to set up the pup tent for our living room campout and cupcake decorating extravaganza! Oh, don&amp;#039;t worry. They&amp;#039;re with their Dad on Tuesday night, so I can clean up from all that then\u2026. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/relationships/dating-marriage/a42958/child-labor-8486/>