Mothering Many

Man, we are really struggling with this lately. Ok, I am struggling with it. Dh just says “no” and moves on or he says “yes” with no rhyme or reason. Especially this week, with money going out for football and cheer-leading (oh, yeah, the girls will be doing that), I’m in the no-zone. See, instead of giving the kids an allowance, DH and I cover their expenses, and while I am not yet ready to get into a prepaid teen card, I am wondering about starting an allowance system of some sort.

In addition to having to eat a chunk of change in registrations and uniforms and equipment (it’s 5 kids, you do the math. STOP! Sit down first, because your knees will buckle) we’re having a real problem around here with stuff getting broken and just not taken care of in general. It’s frustrating, and I am really thinking that if they had to fork over some of the replacement costs, they might take better care of things. Would they leave the clothes they paid for on the floor? Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. But I bet that seeing what they had purchased being walked on wouldn’t bother me nearly as much as seeing what I bought abused.