For all their lives, my three sons have been told they have to do their chores around the house.

"I am NOT the maid" is a phrase they've heard many times.

When my oldest went off to college, he called me after one week at school. Among the first words he heard at college, he reported, were those of the dormitory maid, announcing to a student who had not picked up after himself in the men's lavatory,

"I am NOT your mother!"