Our Youth in the Spotlight: Showcase #4

We received this story from a dear friend, and a member of our community about her 11yr old daughter Miracle. The first 10 years of Miracle's life she was never expected to help out around the house. Her parents are separated and share joint custody between two states, dad during the school year and mom the summer. As a result mom has always just wanted to be with her daughter when she was here, rather than expect her to pitch in with chores.

The custody changed when Miracle was 9 and she now stays with mom during the school year, taking her summer vacations with dad. Mom assessed the situation and decided it was time for Miracle to pitch in and do daily chores.

You can guess that Miracle wasn't as thrilled as mom about this new idea and often complained, or "forgot" to do the chores completely. Mom set up incentives and did her best to provide sufficient consequences with no second thought. Miracle begin completing her chores as expected and was rewarded just the same.

One particular day Miracle was expected to straighten up the living room and clean out her toy box. When mom came home what she found was shocking. Miracle had done her chore, as expected, AND folded up extra blankets, putting them away in the closet, vacuumed and wiped down the surfaces.

While her chore demanded to pick up her things and clean the toy box she went above and beyond what was expected of her to thoroughly clean the living room. Way to go Miracle, you are this weeks Youth in the Spotlight!