Child labor

There's an infamous photo circulating somewhere out there within our family. It captures a tow-headed 4-year-old boy cleaning the toilet. And we're talking cleaning, complete with the yellow rubber gloves and a toilet brush.

The subject of the photo is my brother, Paul. And 20 years later, he continually refers to that photo as proof of his miserable childhood (just add it to your memoirs, bro). To listen to him complain, you'd think he was the male version of Cinderella.

Well, as a mother of a child about that age, I've been enlightened. And I'm about to share that enlightenment with my brother. Are you ready for this, Paul?

Children that age LIKE to clean! They do! Probably even toilets, if you give them the chance...

Take my child, for instance. You give him a Clorox wipe and he'll go to town. Hand him a bottle of Windex and a rag and he'll be in hog heaven. I might find puddles of the lime-scented cleaner on my windowsills and floors, but he'll be happy.

I've decided to take advantage of this stage for as long as possible. I'm sure one day I'll hear complaints. He might even accuse me of child labor. But I can assure you, once he gets married, he'll know how to clean house.