Logan, Orin and I raked leaves from the yard last night. Yes - I said "raked". We did not use the gas powered leaf blower - we used the boy powered rakes. Is this really so terrible? Though Logan and Orin didn't complain, the neighborhood seemed to think this was bizarre.
As cars drove up and down the street, they actually slowed down to gawk at what was going on in our front yard. I was given many bewildered glances. "Why would she make them use the dreaded rakes when I know darn well they have a leaf blower?" their expressions seemed to convey.
The lady across the street came out her front door yelling "I have a leaf blower you can use if you can't get yours started!"
A neighbor boy (age 8) came over and blatantly accused me of laziness. "You are just too lazy to get that leaf blower started."
A man from one street over was out walking his dog. He stopped to question me about all the manual labor going on in our yard.
Our next door neighbor came home just as we were finishing up. He went straight to his garage, got out his own blower and came right over. I appreciated his gesture. It was getting dark and all we had left were some stragglers which he blew down the bank to the ravine.
Is it really so terrible for kids to learn to do things the "hard" way? Just because there's an easy way doesn't mean we always have to use it. I think it's good to put some sweat into things. How else are we going to appreciate the conveniences we have?
1 comments:
Seriously, people were giving you a hard time about this? Out loud?
You'd think with the way people complain about gas prices, they'd seize on an opportunity to save a little gas.
It's maybe a good thing I don't live on your street. :)
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