In Life’s Like That Sometimes, Khaya Dlanga shares a memory of his childhood Saturdays, when his mother ran the household like a finely tuned machine. Everything had to be spotless. And if something wasn’t done right? You did it again. And again. Until it was right. “No one was going to do it for you,” he writes.
I couldn’t help but smile reading that. To Pat, chores were a fact of life. You didn’t ask why—you asked what's next.
She had time. She had patience. She had standards.
And she believed that children should learn how to care for themselves and contribute meaningfully to the household. Not as a punishment (or at least not always). Not even necessarily as a lesson. Just because that’s what being part of a family meant.
Boy, did things change in the generation of my children and those of my friends' children.
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