Rake and Blow

Life is not Or.  It’s And.  More often than not, life is an and experience.  One should rake and blow.

Case in point.  We were hanging out with some friends in Brooklyn, having brunch.  Jonathan and his wife Karen were there and we were discussing yard work.  They have 2 children – boys – at that time in their teens.  As most of us understood growing up, yard work was part of the kids duties.  We had our chores – extra hands to help out around the house – sometimes with the promise of an allowance at completion.  “Hard work never killed anyone” – a common quote from a parents playbook.

I know it’s not met with excitement – pushing the lawn mower on a humid day, or raking the leaves when the backyard is carpeted.  But it’s a necessity – and bottom line, somebody has to do it.  Some people enjoy it, some people hire landscaper’s to handle, and others recruit the kids.

Jonathan and Karen’s kids didn’t want to help.  Jonathan felt guilty asking them to do chores they didn’t want to do.  Two tasks needed to be accomplished on the weekend – raking or leaf blowing. Both have their merits and require different skill sets.  Raking is down and dirty, old school gathering, lots of upper body and back required.  Leaf blowers have lightened the load and accelerated the process.  They also make a wonderful tool for pissing off your neighbors if you can manage to blow your leaves next door (not recommended.)

So during Jonathan’s lament on getting the kids to help out, the rest of us brunch attendee’s declared, rake AND blow.  They should do both!  They don’t get to choose – if raking and blowing needs to be done, they should rake and blow.  End of story.

Negotiation is a more modern approach to parenting.  When I was growing up, there wasn’t a choice in chores…and for that matter, no reading at the dinner table either.  (What’s that?  No reading?  No video games?  What on earth would the iPad generation do at a restaurant?  Have conversation?  How progressive!)

As Tom turned the bacon and sausages on the grill, we as a group declared Jonathan’s sons must experience the power of dual lawn duties.  You must tell them that they will rake and blow.  Done!

Jonathan and I recalled that brunch brawl this past fall during a phone conversation, while discussing his upcoming weekend plans – which included, yes, you guessed it, raking and blowing.  Solo.  His oldest son was away at college…and his youngest too busy building robots (he’s quite the mechanical wiz.)  If only his son could build a Yard Buddy – an R2D2 of landscaping – a willing participant, eager to please.  On Monday, Jonathan sent me the above header image of his completed R&B task – he noted that one doesnt have to bag the leaves these days, just get them curbside for the town to pickup.

Certainly better than rake, blow and bag – wouldn’t you say?