My husband and I have radical views on raising kids. I believe kids should, from an early age, learn how to value and take care of their possessions, learn life skills such as cleaning and cooking, and be as independent as possible. But my values will never express themselves in this household. My DH and I came from diverse backgrounds. From what I’ve observed DH’s values are: skids don’t have to learn how to cook, or clean or take care of their possessions – someone else will do it all for them. 

Blending families sometimes feels as futile as mixing oil and water, but there ARE things we can do to help curb the chaos and save our sanity!  I thought I'd start taking Tuesdays to share helpful tips I've picked up over the years and more recently from other STalkers.  I hope you find something to help get a little closer to "living the dream" and would love for others to share any tips they have on the topic in the comments below.

SS9 has a set of chores in our household. He has a list of them on the fridge, he can check them off for each day when they are completed. Once he completes them all for that day, he can use his screens (he earns screen time when he brings home good grades on his homework and tests.) His chores are simple, feed the cat, change liter box, make bed, pack or put away school bag, do your homework. He has a hard time focusing, but all in all, these shouldn't take more than 10 minutes a day outside the homework.

Nothing has really changed since my last post. SD goes back and forth from being sweet to being a turd. DH and I haven’t gone over our expectations with her still but she also hasn’t been with us much. She spent her 2 week Winter break with BM and has been a Negative Nancy since. Even to the point that DH has mentioned it to her and doesn’t enjoy being with her when she’s like that.