The Millionaire-Want-A-Be (MWAB) was simply too much for She Who Must Be Obeyed (my wife) and me when it came to avoiding chores. It was like a professional footballer playing with school kids.

Oh I can hear some of you hard-nosed parents out there ... "It wouldn't have been like that if he was my kid" and "What that kid needed was some discipline".

If this is what you think ... then you would be wrong. We tried every kind of discipline imaginable, except water boarding ... and that's only because in the 1980s and 1990s we didn't know what water boarding was.

We tried restrictions: in the yard and house, in the house only, in the room only.

We tried extra chores: menial labor, manual labor, boring stuff, hard stuff.

We tried deprivation: taking away telephone, television, radio, boom box, video games, friends and various combinations of all of the above.

We sent away to applications for boarding schools, military schools, religious schools, to try and convince the MWAB to clean the room ... or else.

The MWAB could absorb it all and still resist doing what he was asked to do in terms of chores. The idea of him doing anything extra around the house was almost unimaginable.

The MWAB was never "in your face" with his slothfulness. It was all very subdued and seemingly accidental. He never intended to take a drink or food up to his room ... he just forgot ... or he felt sick and needed some ginger ale near his bed ... or one of his friends brought the cereal box over with him to visit.

Similarly, the MWAB would never respond to the punishment ... he would just take it ... no yelling or screaming ... not even any pleading or deal making. He would just absorb whatever you did and, eventually, make you feel bad.

He was like the Ghandi of slobs ... peaceful yet brilliant in his slothfulness.

God Bless America.

Enjoy!