Mount Everest

I have been trying to get my kids to do some work around the house. I'm not talking brick laying or carpet installation here, just some simple chores like dishes, laundry, picking up their dirty clothes, etc. Pretty simple stuff, or so you would think. It's like I asked them to move Mount Everest or something. I will tell Gus to do the dishes and he gets this mad look on his face and stomps off to his room only to come back down about two minutes later hoping that I have forgotten that there is a sink full of dishes. When I ask him again he gets another equally nasty look and stomps off to his room. This has gone on for days at a time, he just refuses to do anything. His sister is quite the opposite in her behavior. I ask her to feed the dog she will say sure mom and three hours later, the dog has yet to be fed and Gwen looks at me with the most sorrowful look on her face as if to say "How can you be angry with me? I'm clearly sorry", but the problem is that she isn't, 'cause it will happen over and over again. I don't know if she truly forgets, or if she is just waiting for me to do it for her. Max will all out refuse to do anything and if asked starts stomping around the house terrorizing everyone until he gets his way. Which under normal circumstances doesn't take too long. Another one of Gus' tricks is to enlist Lex to do his chores, he will agree to clean his room and then I can hear him dictating what Lex needs to do. I really don't care as long as it gets done, but now Lex has a problem with doing things because he says he has to do everything and I think he may actually not be too far off. I'm still holding out hope for Eddie, but not for much longer, 'cause as every day passes she is acting more and more like her brother Max and behavior wise, that can't be a good thing. Hmmmm, I wonder where all of this defiance stems from? I guess I wouldn't know, but let me tell you a story about this past weekend that might shed a little light on the subject. I was so tired of everyone not pulling their weight and promising to do chores after they watched just one more TV show or played one more video game that I swore that no one was going to use anything electronic until we got some things done around the house. Chip was actually behind me on this. He started telling the kids what they had to do and stayed there to make sure it was getting done, or so I thought. I left to run an errand thinking that with Chip on board there would be at least some progress made while I was gone. I came home a couple hours later to the house looking exactly the same - if not a little worse - as when I left. The six of them were all huddled around the computer watching Survivor episodes. I proceeded to clean up and make dinner. Every once in a while I would ask various people to help me with different tasks, the only ones that even came when I called were Lex and Eddie. An hour later, after I had dinner ready, Lex, Eddie and I went outside to the deck and had a very nice relaxing dinner. About half way through, everyone else started meandering out wondering why I didn't call them when dinner was ready. I said I made dinner for the people who helped when I asked for it. All they did was grumble. And what did Chip do when I asked why he refused to help and why the children were all watching TV when I had expressly told them they couldn't? He just looked at me like I had just asked him to move Mount Everest or something...interesting.