This week our gorgeous ‘impromptu’ design team shares with us their recollections of chores in their day compared to now. There seems to be some agreement that kids get it way easier these days!!
Heidi Barclay writes: I have printed the photo's directly onto transparencies and then placed white cardstock underneath, I took the pictures on Sat as it just happened that the girls were doing chores for me..... We loved the idea of printing photos directly onto transparency for a nostalgic look!
Christine Rumley shares her journalling on this wonderfully colourful layout: "You kids are a bit little for chores yet, but i do try to encourage you to help me out by putting your dirty washing in the laundry basket. Some days even that little job seems to be too much for you. Instead you have (rather successfully) trained your baby sister to do it for you. I can't ever remember trying to con my sisters into doing my chores for me. Or perhaps I did try, but no one was willing to take on my somewhat unappealing task of cleaning the bathrooms and the toilet. Whilst I would prefer that you would put your own clothes out to wash, I will admit that I do have to admire your resourcefulness."
Rebecca Young writes: This week I've focused on responsibilities rather than jobs or chores. At 5 years old my daughter is responsible for packing and unpacking her school bag, hanging up her towel after a shower as well cleaning up her toys outside. My daughter also likes to help wash our car so we normally give her some pocket money for that which she puts in her piggy bank.
My responsibilities growing up included feeding our cat, getting myself ready for school, helping with the dishes and when I got older and could reach the washing line, I would take the washing off and fold it.
Doing this layout has inspired me to do another layout based on the value of a dollar. I want to compare what I could buy with a dollar back in the early 80s to today. I think this would be fun and an interesting read in years to come.
Thanks to Agnus Kasprzak for this layout – how cool are the copper coins she has included in the denim pocket! Agnus writes: I was trying to compare the chores we had as kids to what our boys do around the house today and one of the biggest differences (apart from them having to do way less then we did) is the lack of grass for them to have to mow. Cutting the grass was one of those things that got assigned to us once we were old enough operate the mower. It was a messy job that seemed to take forever to through, and rarely got you any pocket money for your efforts but it had to get done and even now the smell of freshly cut grass often brings back memories of my childhood. Moving into a townhouse recently was a big change but also a relief to know that there would be no grass for anybody to have to mow.
Finally, Anthea Peterson found this treasure – a photo of her at the sink as a child! Anthea writes: I went digging through my album this week and found a photo of myself when I was about 4 doing some dishes, though it is a toy cup and it was more a game it was only a sign of things to come, with doing the daily dinner dishes becoming a regular chore for myself and my siblings.
Just as a sidenote, we might be tempted when taking a similar photo these days to crop in closer and not include the background detail – but its these very things that creates fascination and ‘sets the scene’ in older photos.