I used to whine to my grandma because I had so many chores when my siblings didn't have any. My grandma used to smile and tell me in her "I'm so proud of you" voice that the reason that my parents made me do so much stuff was because I did it.

This confused me to no end. So, it was a good thing that my parents gave me more stuff to do? This was something to be proud of? Okay. But wait, is there another option? Don't I HAVE to do what they tell me to? How was my sister getting away with this?

Wait a minute! Hmmm... maybe I could NOT do what they tell me to do and then they'd stop asking me to do things. I'm a genius!

But do you know what? That plan failed. And do you know why? Because they got mad at me. Apparantly parents don't like it when their kids don't do what they say, especially when they're used to them doing it. And I don't like it when people are mad at me. So I did what they said. And they gave me even more stuff to do. And I did that too. Because I wanted them to like me. But they don't. Still. It kind of makes me want to go back and say, "NO! Pick up your own damn mess! I'm going outside to play!" Because that would have been a whole lot more fun than scrubbing walls and fetching odd things for my mother. But not nearly as fun for them. And that's what really matters. Wait, what was my point? I don't know. But I'll bet it was good.