Dh is redoing the dog run today and enforcing the gate because ss's dog is a powerful brut and a baby and will rip through anything when he's nervous. (My beautiful front door is a victim of the dog's anxiety as well).

We've been having ss (and my bios when they are here with him) walk the dogs both in the morning and evening. Ss puts up a fight and will try to get away with a 7 min walk but for the most part all are benefitting from the responsibility and exercise.

Last night dh told ss not to stay up too late because they'd be working together in the morning. At 8 am dh asked ss if he wanted to go with him to Home Depot. Ss said no. Dh then said , "when. Get back, you're going to have to help me". Ss said "why". Dh gave an answer regarding ss's dog.

I ended up going with dh to Home Depot and said the correct answer to ss's question was, "because I said so".

Dh made a few excuses that it would be easier to do it on his own. Ss would just slow the project down, ss is so lazy and useless anyway.... Blah blah bah.

I reminded dh, that the reason we have kids do chores and projects is to teach them responsibility, give them a sense of accomplishment and get them out from behind a tv/video game screen.

I left and went shopping with the baby.

When I returned, dh came up to me snickering. "I'm working the hell out of him".

Good! Kids SHOuLD be doing this kind of stuff. He's 14 ffs and he is fully capable of helping you with fencing and trimming weeds. Sheesh.

... Still I'm proud. and it's three hours later and they're still out there.