The Rookie Mama - Don’t sweep chores under the rug: A tale of summer structure and Lucky Charms

By Michelle Cote
The Rookie Mama

Parenting in the summer is like a firehose to the face that sends you backward down a giant slip-and-slide and lands you somewhere in a splashpad wild wilderness world if you so much as blink, when your kiddos are on three-month hiatus, but alas, your full-time work schedule hasn’t changed.

Splish-splash, don’t jump back in the bath – When it’s peak summer-lovin’ time in Maine, a bit of structure can go a long way to ensure smooth sailing for your whole crew.

Whether your little ones are summer camp bound or home with caregivers, be sure to begin every morning and end each day with a little routine and chores for all.

My husband and I have four young boys, ranging in age from 4 to 13. Each is able to contribute meaningfully to our home’s everyday upkeep, and as we all know, many hands make light work.

And in our home of six, we’ve sure got many a hand.

Kiddos kicking in with chores not only contributes greatly to our daily function, but teaching responsibility gives our little guys a sense of pride and accomplishment.

It’s a family affair.

Our youngest ones help pick up, whether sorting and properly stashing toy trains, Hot Wheels cars and Duplos from whence they came, or clearing the table – be it storing away art supplies or scooping up accidentally spilled bowls of Lucky Charms.

They’re also learning to help our older boys fold laundry.

After all, we all wear clothes – A whole lot of it – Folding should also be the team effort.

The folds may not be perfect, and socks may not always be exquisitely matched, not to mention the shirts that may be inadvertently placed in wrong piles.

We don’t expect perfection.

After all, I’ve never even met an adult who can fold a fitted sheet.

Among our older circuit, our boys help clean the house, do dishes, take out trash and recycling and mow our hilly lawn among other tasks.

When our kids are really deep in chore zone, they get music or background movie choice to make it fun and truly nurture that autonomy.

Rise-and-shines and bedtimes are still enforced, albeit with more flexibility than school nights and golden rule days. This keeps us on routine and ready to take on the day.

Peppered between daily tasks is lots of fun in the sun and the reward feels all the more magnificent after each doing our part.

But that’s precisely what it is – Each does our fraction; together we’re made whole.

When we teach responsibility – with patience, grace, and some great tunes in the mix – we all benefit, and our littles ones learn these life skills.

According to Parent.com, children who do chores grow up to be successful. A Harvard study that followed people for 75 years were able to connect their physical and emotional health as well as professional success to whether they did chores as kiddos.

And so it goes – To participate in life, one must contribute to it.

Chores also allow little ones to learn how things work.

So cleaning up those Hot Wheels cars and washing dishes regularly go a long way, so it seems.

Even Harvard says so.

Even if no one will ever know how to fold a fitted sheet.

So keep calm and carry on all summer long – Just don’t forget to keep kid chores top of mind along with sunscreen, and you’ll all have a well-deserved summer to remember.

­­– Michelle Cote lives in southern Maine with her husband and four sons, and enjoys camping, distance running, biking, gardening, road trips to new regions, arts and crafts, soccer, and singing to musical showtunes – often several or more at the same time!

Insight: Buck and The Cro

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

Several famous people I have met under different circumstances exhibited an uncommon trait called kindness.

Joe Crozier, left, befriended Ed Pierce when he was the
coach of the Rochester Americans in the American
Hockey League in the 1960s. Pierce met recording artist
B.W. Stevenson before a concert in 1973.
COURTESY PHOTOS     

As a representative of the Student Entertainment Committee at New Mexico Highlands University in October 1973, my mission was to ensure the bands we booked to appear in concert had suitable hotel accommodations and their equipment was on site and available for their performance. It also meant making sure the electricity and microphones worked and that band members were fed before each of the concerts.

One of the first performers I got to meet in person was a musician by the name of B.W. Stevenson. He and his band were touring the county promoting his new album. “My Maria” and his hit single of the same name from the album. Our committee had booked him earlier that summer, when his fee to perform was reasonable enough before his hit song rose to reach the Top 10 nationally.

I hadn’t listened very much to his music, but I had noticed his first album with his photo wearing a stovepipe hat the year before. I met his bus when it arrived on campus and told the band that once they looked over the gym where they were playing, we could get them checked into the hotel and then return for early afternoon sound checks and rehearsal.

Stevenson was slightly older than I was, in fact, he shared with me that this day of the concert was in fact his 23rd birthday. He wasn’t very tall but was rather stocky and quiet. He told me that he was from Dallas, Texas and learned to play the guitar as a teenager.

When I asked him what the B.W. initials stood for, he laughed and said, “It’s Buckwheat, but you can call me Buck if you’d like.”

After dinner, Stevenson pulled me aside and asked what was going on in town after the concert. I mentioned to him that our fraternity was having a party with a keg of beer afterward and that he was welcome to come by our fraternity house with his band.

The concert was successful, and my job was done as other committee members made sure everything got packed up and stored on the band’s bus.

To my surprise, Stevenson showed up at the party with some band members and thanked me for inviting him. He shared a beer with us and some stories from the road and his life as a musician. I found him to be genuine and a regular guy despite his celebrity status.

While attending a professional hockey game in Rochester, New York in 1965, I asked my father if I could walk down to the player’s bench and see if one of them would give me a hockey stick. Most of the players were out on the ice warming up before the game started and so there was just one man standing by the bench and he was dressed in a business suit, so I decided that he wasn’t a hockey player.

I introduced myself to the man in the suit and he told me his name was Joe “The Cro” Crozier and that he was the coach of the Rochester Americans. He asked how old I was, and I told him I was 11. He pointed out onto the ice to a player warming up for the Hershey Bears wearing a jersey with the numeral 8 on it. He said the player’s nickname was “The Big Bear” and that his real name was Mike Nykoluk, pronounced Nik-O-Luck.

Crozier said that if I shouted “You Stink” at Nykoluk when he skated by and if he reacted to it, that he would make sure I received a hockey stick.

Sure enough, Nykoluk skated past where I was standing and I screamed at him, “Hey Nykoluk, you stink like a skunk.” Nykoluk stopped, turned around and smiled at me, shaking his stick at me first, and then at Crozier, who was laughing hysterically.

I returned to my seat but before the game ended, Crozier motioned to the usher to bring me and my brother to the bench where he presented us both with broken hockey sticks. Crozier told me, “Someday when you are grown up, you’ll remember this moment.”

Crozier went on as a coach to lead the Rochester Americans to three Calder Cup American Hockey League championships. He later served as the coach of the Buffalo Sabres and the Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League. Ironically, when Crozier was fired as the Leafs’ coach in 1981, he was replaced by none other than Mike Nykoluk. In 2012, Crozier was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame and died at the age of 93 in 2022.

B.W. Stevenson continued to sing and perform nationally until 1988. In April of that year, he went into the hospital to have a heart valve repaired. Following the surgery, he soon developed a staph infection and died at age 38. Brooks and Dunn later had a Number 1 country hit with their version of Stevenson's "My Maria." 

Years later, when I think about meeting Joe Crozier and B.W. Stevenson, and that they each chose to be friendly to me when I was a total stranger to them, I am humbled. Their kindness is not something I will soon forget. <

Andy Young: Celebrating the 3rd 83rd

By Andy Young

Historians have an inexplicable love for round numbers. That’s why next year (MMXXVI for Roman numeral users), Americans can expect a bombardment of pomp and ceremony when the United States marks its semiquincentennial, sestercentennial, bisesquicentennial, or, for people who struggle with pronouncing words containing more than five syllables, its 250th anniversary.

Harriet Lane was the niece of U.S President
James Buchanan and because he was not 
married, she served as First Lady for
the president in 1859. COURTESY PHOTO

Far be it from me to rain on next year’s extravagant parade(s), but what’s wrong with celebrating every July 4th equally? Just because this year’s Independence Day is the country’s 249th doesn’t make the occasion any less meaningful. In fact, I think this year’s July 4 is even more significant than next year’s will be, since it marks America’s third 83rd birthday.

And what was so special about the first two 83rd anniversaries of the founding of the United States? In a word, plenty.

Four score and three years after the Declaration of Independence marked the penultimate (an easily pronounced four-syllable word) year of James Buchanan’s one-term presidency. And while his indecisiveness likely led to the Civil War, the lifelong bachelor should also be remembered as the only president to ever have his niece (Harriet Lane, for those keeping score at home) serve as America’s First Lady.

Plenty of American history was being made outside Washington, D.C. in 1859 as well. Indian Head pennies were minted for the first time. Oregon was admitted as the nation’s 33rd state, and the city of Olympia was incorporated in the territory of Washington. A lot of Americans seemed to be in a hurry that year, since MDCCCLIX was the year of the Colorado Gold Rush, the Comstock Lode Silver Rush, and the Pennsylvania Oil Rush.

On June 30, Charles Blondin became the first person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope. The first-ever intercollegiate baseball game was played the next day, with Amherst besting Williams (and their notoriously weak bullpen) 73-32. Cass Gilbert, the architect who designed the Supreme Court building, the Woolworth building, and three different state capitals, was born in 1859. So were educator John Dewey and outlaw William H. “Billy the Kid” Bonney.

America’s second 83rd birthday occurred in 1942 (MCMXLII), when the country was embroiled in World War II. Food, sugar, and gasoline were just three items that Americans had to ration, and the conflict was coming uncomfortably close to United States shores. On May 12, a Nazi U-boat sunk an American cargo ship near the Mississippi River delta, and a month later a Japanese submarine fired on Fort Stevens, Oregon, at the mouth of the Columbia River. On June 27, the FBI nabbed eight Nazi saboteurs off the coast of Long Island, New York, so it wasn’t surprising that the nation’s minimum draft age was lowered from 21 to 18 in November.

However, in June the war’s tide began turning the allies’ way when the Battle of Midway marked the first decisive defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific theater.

Not all of American History in 1942 involved war, though. Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas” and “Silent Night” that year. Glenn Miller and his orchestra were awarded the first-ever Gold Record after a million copies of their rendition of “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” were sold, and Walt Disney’s animated version of Bambi was released in late August. The St. Louis Cardinals won a five-game World Series over the New York Yankees, and the Heisman Trophy went to Georgia halfback Frank Sinkwich.

There’s still half of 2025 remaining, so there’s no telling what significant history will be made this year.

That established, it goes without saying there’s no way to accurately forecast where America will be on its next 83rd birthday, in MMCVIII. <