The Hard Working Mother And her Lazy Children

A widowed mother worked hard every day for her lazy children, with one of them interested in learning how to do chores. When she leaves and doesn't return, how will the children react?

The Hard-Working Mother and Her Lazy Children

by Omegax45

 

 

                        Once upon a time, there was a woman that lived in a log cabin with her three children.  Her husband passed away when the children were young, and the mother worked very hard to have food on the table and clothes for her children.  Each day, she would get up early and go into the forest to pick fresh berries and check her snares for any animals caught in them.  Once she returned, she would make breakfast for herself and her children before cleaning the house and cutting firewood to sell to their neighbors that lived a few hours away for a few coins and supplies, made sure her children ate lunch before continuing with her chores and preparing dinner.  She then bathed her children and send them off to bed as she finished whatever she didn't during the day before she retired to bed.  She was a very hard worker and hoped that her children would help ease her burden as they grew older.

                        Sadly, the children saw no reason to learn how to set up snares or do chores, for their mother did all that herself.  The children were very lazy and spent all day playing or causing mischief.  They believed that their mother would take care of them for the rest of their lives, meaning that their days of playing and having fun would never end.

                        Time passed, and the children grew older, but still played like children.  Their mother was becoming older, and she was finding it harder to perform her daily chores.  One child, the youngest, saw his mother's dilemma and did something that nearly shocked the woman.  He asked if she needed help.  Brought to tears by this declaration, the mother wanted to say yes.  Before she could, her eldest children ushered the youngest child away, scolding him and telling him he shouldn't interrupt their mother.  The aging woman almost fell to her knees in despair.  She gathered her children to her that night and told them that she would need their help from now on, as she was getting older and she would not be able to tend to their needs much longer.  The eldest children argued that it was her duty to care for them, while the youngest child remained silent.  After arguing for awhile, the mother gave up and retired to her room, completely depressed.  The youngest child snuck into her room and held his mother as she cried.

                        The next morning, the youngest child snuck away from his siblings and went to his mother, asking her how to set up snares.  The mother showed him how and, with a little practice, was setting up the snares perfectly while she chopped wood.  The day after, the youngest child asked his mother how to chop the wood.  The mother taught him how, and he chopped all the wood as she worked on her other chores.  The youngest child was taught a different thing each day and did this in secret and, in doing so, learned how to care for himself.  His elder siblings spent their days playing around and laying about, having no desire to learn at all.

                        For her children's birthday, the mother decided to head to the forest to gather sweet roots to make a cake.  It would be a long journey, and that meant there wouldn't be anyone to care for her children.  The eldest children, who loved sweets, declared that they will be fine on their own for awhile.  The youngest child was worried for his mother, who had not been feeling well for a few days.  The mother assured her youngest child that she would be fine.

                        The mother left her children one morning, the eldest siblings believing that she would be back soon.  Days passed, turning into weeks and months, but the mother did not returned.  The children began to worry, but none dared to leave the log cabin to search for her.  After all, the log cabin was all that they known.  Their food was running out, and the children smelled terrible for not taking baths or washing their own clothes.  Afraid for himself and his siblings, the youngest child crept out one evening to set up snares.  The next morning he went to check them to find he had caught several rabbits and was happy.  However, his happiness was cut short when he found his siblings waiting for him upon his return.

                        "We know what you've been doing little brother," the eldest brother said, "With Mother gone, you shall take care of us."

                        "After all," the eldest sister added, "You are the youngest and must do what we say, or you shall receive a beating."

                        The youngest child was scared.  How did his siblings knew?  He and their mother had been so careful.  He did not want to get a beating, so he ended up caring for them like his mother did from that day on.  The first few months were all trial-and-error, as he had to learn everything that his mother did without her to guide him.  He was beaten if he made a mistake, and his clothes soon became torn while his siblings wore the best clothing.  He ate nothing but scraps while his siblings ate the finest meals he could make, causing him to lose weight.  His arms and legs ached as he sold firewood to the neighbors he had a hard time finding while he was forced to rub his siblings' feet and backs when he got home.  He barely slept at night in order to complete the chores and keep his siblings comfortable, weeping whenever they slept for his misfortune.  If only they had listened to their kind mother and learned how to do the chores.  He had seen other mothers able to make their children do chores without so much as a complaint.  How did he and his siblings become so spoiled?

                        A year passed, and the eldest siblings demanded the youngest child to go in search of the sweet roots that their mother had left for.  The youngest child begged his siblings not to make him, for he did not know where to look.  He was tossed out of the log cabin and ordered not to returned until he found them.  He begged and wept to be let in, but his eldest siblings locked the door and windows, refusing him entry.  Weeping still, the youngest child took a basket and left.

                        For days, the youngest child relied on his knowledge of berries to get him by as he searched for the sweet roots.  He shivered in the night cold as he tried to sleep, the hard ground very uncomfortable, and panted as the hot sun heated the forest during the day.  He walked further and further into the forest, finding himself lost and unable to return home.  Giving in to his sorrows, he curled up next to a tree and wept.

                        "Are you lost?"

                        The youngest child looked up to see a young girl his age kneeling before him, looking concerned.  She was beautiful and wore a fancy dress he had never seen before.

                        "The forest is a dangerous place to be in," she said, "Did you get lost looking for your family?  Come, you can stay at my house.  My father's the governor here, so once you're able, we can go look for your family.  They must be worried sick for you."

                        The youngest child did not know what to say to such kindness and wept in joy.  He was lead to a very large house and tended to by such kind servants.  The young girl stayed by his side as he was dressed in the finest clothes and fed him the best meals he had ever tasted.  The governor arrived and asked the child where he came from.  The youngest child told his tale of how he and his family lived deep in the forest and their mother went missing a year ago and how he was forced to care for his elder siblings that did not know how to care for themselves.  He also told the governor of how he was kicked out of the log cabin and ordered to find sweet roots that he did know where and how he ended up upon his property.

                        "How peculiar," the governor said after the tale was done, "A year ago, my servants came across a sickly woman while tending to the gardens outside.  She was delirious with fever, claiming to be in search of sweet roots for her children.  Sweet roots grow by the waterfall far east of here, so she must've gotten lost after becoming so ill.  I'm afraid to say, but she passed away after days of fighting the fever.  Before she died, she wanted me to give this to her children, but my servants and I could not find her home."

                        The governor pulled out a small pendant, and the youngest child began to weep.  It was his mother's.  Guilt and shame washed over him, for it was he and his siblings' laziness that led their poor mother to her death.  If he had known, he would've gone with her that day so long ago. 

                        The governor let the youngest child stay with him, for his daughter had taken a liking to him.  He made many friends with the children of the servants and learned many things, but he so wished to be with his eldest siblings.  They were his family, after all.  The governor and a few of his guards followed the youngest child back to the log cabin, where they found the eldest siblings violently ill for eating spoiled meat and poisoned berries.  Despite getting them back to the governor's house and tended to by a doctor, the eldest siblings passed away.  The youngest child mourned the loss of his family, the governor's daughter by his side to give him comfort.

                        The two children stayed together and fell in love, getting married upon reaching adulthood.  The governor taught his son-in-law all he knew and groomed him into becoming his heir.  When the new couple had children, he made certain that his children did not become lazy like his siblings did and taught them to be decent adults.

                        And they all lived happily ever after.

 

The End

Author's Note

I just thought of this up and it sounded like a fairy tale. Thank you for reading.

Reviews

[kitty kat konkers]

Your story's great. It's kinda like Hansel and Gretel if you think about it.

[Omegax45]

Thank you. as I look back on it, yeah. It kinda does. Except without a child-eating witch or an evil stepmother. lol.

[kitty kat konkers]

I meant at the start with the parents and the lazy children eating everything.

[Omegax45]

That's what I meant too. It sounded like the beginning of Hansel and Gretel, but it developed into something else entirely.