I don't know why but doesn't the dishes seem like such a terrible chore? I'm not sure if it is those perpetual ones that really get to you because it is a daily occurrence? It kind of goes hand in hand with yesterdays blog though doesn't it? Yep, our household learned about home cooking again, but we also learned about dishes.
We have child labour in our house so we are fortunate. I call it rent. I remember having to pay my rent in a similar fashion. I dreaded it. I wished over and over that someone would invent dishes that would just clean themselves. I need to warn you, before you entrust your children to do the dishes, you must be prepared to wash them again for awhile or eat off of half clean utensils. Kids don't really have an eye for detail unless it's the glint that you can now see off of the players skates in EA Sports NHL 22...then they pay attention to the finer details. One way to handle that is to make the person with the drying towel in charge of quality control. Kids rather enjoy returning a dish with a speck on it to a sibling with dish pan hands.
Chores are a great way to teach kids a bit of resiliency though in my opinion. For instance, I don't have a wood stove in my house but I am seriously considering getting a cord of wood delivered to split. Sounds a little crazy I know, but just hear me out.
I recall being the "pilot" when I was a kid and we did have a wood stove. My Dad would split it, and I would pile it. It sucked. It wasn't easy but it wasn't too difficult either. After it was done, the pile looked pretty good; and there was a sense of accomplishment. Winter wasn't fun with going outside and digging out the wood to bring into the garage, but that was all part of it as well. This is why I am thinking of getting the wood. I have a fire pit outside so it wouldn't go to waste. It would just be a this-kind-of-sucks-but-we-got-it-done lesson...and the wood splitting would be a decent way to work out outside. Besides, I don't have a rock quarry on the premises.
I think that the more little things that we can teach our kids that way will help them with a bit of resiliency in the future. Bearing down and getting after it when the task seems insurmountable and there is no really good place to start; but just teaching them that the starting is the hardest part will pay off in dividends for the rest of their lives. I have learned that lesson countless times and still relearn it often.
There is of course the other side of the coin to all of these lessons meaning I still despise doing the dishes, and I know that these little people will not be here forever, so best to take the break while I can! Gross, I believe that I just found a piece of dried egg on the side of my coffee cup. I'll just go give it another quick rinse before I go price out a cord of wood. Till next time.