Now Is The Part Of The Show Where We All Do Dishes

Food is a huge part of our homeschool. Food is a huge part of our life and lively hood. We farm, we raise meat animals, we educate and hand hold those who are starting the whole/real food adventure.

That means we dirty a lot of dishes. Oh yes we do. The children are big enough to help clean up, even Isaac. There is nothing cuter than when he grabs his cup and walks it to the kitchen sink. He LOVES handing me dirty dishes to wash, gleefully he helps.

I both hate and love my kitchen.
I have huge dreams for the remodel.

Chores for dishes break down like this:

• Lily is in charge of keeping the under cabinets organised. This serves two purposes, the first is she knows where everything goes (to put away and to get out while cooking) and the second is a lesson is spacial math. How to get everything to fit and have it make sense.
• Holly is in charge of the spoon drawer. Her job is to put them away, keep it tidy, and bring those to the table at meals.
• Isaac helps when he can, as he can. He's two.
• I do a sink load of dishes in the morning after breakfast.
• Lunch and Supper dishes get washed after the meal, usually by Chad, while I head upstairs to bathe Isaac and get Holly and Isaac into bed if it is that late or they are that tired.I still have to wash all the cups because Chad can't get his hand in them to get them clean. Maybe I need to buy a bottle brush?
• Lily and I share putting away the clean dishes that go up high. I want Holly to start helping with this, but right now there are too many appliances being used and hot on the counter she would have to stand on.

No dishwasher means we have to keep up on this task. Doing it together, each having responsibility, is awesome.

Chad opened dinner the other night with a monologue about the children not having a maid, and that mama should never be treated as such.

My children do pick up though. In fact, they have a lot of chores. Not paid chores, not assigned chores, but things we all do together to keep our home tidy and nice to be in. Usually the kid working with me on a task is the kid who wants to be and the kid who needs that extra one on one time. I tell them stories if they help me and I am a fantastic storyteller.

In a typical day Lily and Holly gather dirty laundry and take it to the laundry room. They gather eggs, feed the bucket calf, and tidy the media room if they want to watch television or play computer games. Music time requires that room be picked up. The dining room table must be cleaned before every meal or before a major art project comes out. They know this, they do this.

The kids, all three, did most of the work today cleaning this room up.
It was full of toys and instruments. They let me vacuum though. ;)

Their rooms are something else. Lily keeps hers tidy on her own. It is very small so she has to for her own movement sake!

Holly's room gets attended to by me. Holly helps sometimes. Isaac makes the biggest messes in here, so I usually take care of it.

Lily told me recently that she decided that it takes less time to just do what I ask her to than it does to argue about it and that's why she gets her work done quickly and heads outside with Isaac. Works for me, though I have made extra effort to praise her and let her know how needed her work is.

Chad keeps his desk tidy and takes care of all things outside. He works, commutes, comes home to hours of outdoor chores, and still finds time to help with anything I ask him to. He watches the kids while I write, he cleans up dinner, he tidies spaces with us. He does all of this on top of things I cannot help him with. Plus he's intelligent, caring, and handsome. Seriously. I am one lucky lady!

The thing is, I know that this is a blessing. I know that not all households work like ours. I know that even when we all prioritise other things over tidy and clean up, that he will help me catch up. We are almost 15 years into this crazy beautiful marriage and housekeeping is very much not my gift. Recently however, I did two things: I hired someone to essentially teach me how to do it and I started directly asking for help. I try not to get upset when people are unable to help me, not giving them grief about it is my way of being respectful  to their needs. This includes children. I never ask them to drop a game or movie in the middle to help with a task, in exchange they show me the same respect.

Things go a lot more peacefully when I am mindful of this respect. I won't lie and say that I never end up yelling about the left open drawers or the mountain of unfolded clean clothes that takes over my bedroom and threatens Armageddon. I do. I do dramatically, like an angry dragon with a thorn in her side.

Eventually, I put on my super hero belt and tackle that monster. If I have made everyone hate being near me by being nasty and mean to them, then I have to do it alone. If I bring chocolate and promise music and story time, then little heroes and dragons appear by my side, swords in hands.

That's how I prefer to tackle life too, chocolate and music and good stories surrounded by dragons and heroes and peaceful, joyful progress.

If I fall behind on tasks, I have a back up coming with relief supplies. Several back ups, actually. Knowing this alone takes a lot of the stress out of it and that makes a huge difference. 

How do you handle kid chores?