Easiest Job, Part II

After Sam identified full-time parenting as the world's easiest job, he (or one of his brothers) asked why I don't have a job like Dad's. You know, one with a paycheck. I took the opportunity to advise them regarding the pros and cons of such an arrangement:

There would be some nice things about Mom having a regular job. "Yeah," Sam says, "we'd have piles of money everywhere! Like there'd be a pile over there, and another one over here. And you'd say 'Here, Sam, have some MONEY!'"

But even if I worked while you were at school, there are a lot of things I wouldn't have time to do. For example, who would make dinner? "I would because I'm the oldest," Sam says with great confidence.

Who would do the laundry? "Me! Me! Because I'm very strong," Jude volunteers. "And Owen could do the silverware." (Owen's usual job is putting away clean silverware from the dishwasher.)

Who would clean the bathrooms? Pause. "Um, we ... all would."

Great! What about going to the grocery store? Long pause. "We could go on our bikes!" "No, we'd get in trouble for riding our bikes there!"

And what we do if you got sick and needed someone to pick you up from school and take care of you? Long pause. More pause.

That's the clincher. Everything else we could delegate or hire out, but when you're sick you really need your mom.