Doing Dishes

I had asked the kids to help clean the kitchen yesterday afternoon. Brenda was in Utah county for some work function and I had planned to have the kitchen clean and dinner made by the time she came home. I was working from home, thanks to Fox and his upset stomach, so I should have had plenty of time to make sure the home was in order for Brenda. But things never go as planned and I was besieged by some urgent business late in the afternoon that required my full attention. Having dinner ready was no longer a possibility, but perhaps if the kids could get the kitchen clean, I might be able to salvage the surprise.

I set Dylan in charge of emptying the dishwasher, Emily in charge of clearing and wiping down counter-tops and tables and Fox and Caylee in charge of putting the dirty dishes into the dishwasher (which had been backing up for a couple of days now).

Dylan did his job and promptly left for the legos, Emily did her job and found a book. Caylee dutifully started on the dishes and Fox threw a tantrum of all tantrums about having to do something that he didn't want to. I lectured; I looked sternly; I finally threatened to ground him for the eternities (okay, maybe just the weekend). Realizing he might be stuck in the house all weekend, he relented and got to work. I've simplified this battle between us - it was stretched over the course of a half hour. I went back to work, setting my parental radar to "blood and bones" meaning unless a child was bleeding or a bone sticking out of his/her skin, I didn't care what was going on.

Brenda came home while I was still wrapping up work. The kitchen was in a near favorable state, the kids were happy and we finally were able to think about dinner and the rest of the evening.

Walking past the sink, Brenda asked if the large dishes were clean or dirty. I told her the kids were instructed to put dirty dishes into the dishwasher, but apparently Caylee and Fox attempted to wash the larger pots and pans as well - which Fox confirmed with a big grin.

Let's just say that the dishes would not have passed a state health inspection, but we were grateful that they went beyond what was asked - until we came to the number of dish soap bottles that were used in this one dish washing session. We had one and a half bottles of dish soap under the counter. When it was done, we had two empty bottles.

Brenda finished up the dishes when the kids weren't looking and then later that night bought some more dish soup.