I Didn’t Clean The Kitchen Last Night
Are you sufficiently horrified? This is the sight I woke to this morning.
The Husband (I like calling him that) had been on-call for 60 hours and he stumbled home last night, absolutely exhausted. He fell into the chair, and I could tell, he just couldn’t move, let alone talk. I felt like dropping myself; however, seeing him in such a state gave me a little extra energy to put his needs above mine. (I know that sounds sickeningly like the perfect wife, and I’m far from that, but I felt so much compassion for him and he’s usually helpful around dinner). I placed food in-front of the children and then gave a plate to my husband, still in the chair, with a glass of milk. A glass of milk? I don’t know why I gave him a glass of milk; I rarely do that, but it felt like the nurturing thing to do — go figure.
The children took their plates to the kitchen sink. I don’t remember telling them a story. Did I? I certainly had no energy left to clean the kitchen. So there it was, sitting patiently for me this morning. Today, I feel fresher, and I can tackle the mess. I don’t like leaving the kitchen a mess but in a way, I feel good about it. I feel good about it because I was able to prioritise what was important for our family in the moment, and — stuff the rest. It was important, for the moment that has now past, to invest in my husband — I know it.
Sometimes, when my husband comes home I say this:
“I didn’t do very well in the house today, but I loved the children.”
He smiles. And then I smile.
Other Be A Fun Mum Links
Workhouse or Housework
No one wants to live in a workhouse, where people are tense because of the list of rules. A home is a place to be comfortable and relaxed. In saying that, to achieve a comfortable atmosphere, housework needs to be done. It’s about finding the balance between making your ’house work’ without it becoming a ‘work house’.
I was chatting to the lovely Amanda from Bodelicious about encouraging children to do housework. If you haven’t already read The B Team post, start there, as it’s a good foundation. Once you’ve established the fact that housecleaning is every one’s responsibility, it needs be practical.
These are the main principals I can see in relation to encouraging housework:
* Create a team spirit in your family.
* Establish the fact that housecleaning is every one’s responsibility.
* Show your child/ren how to do the job; don’t just expect them to know.
* Increased responsibility = Increased privileges (appropriate to age).
* Be firm and consistent.
I was interested in Amanda’s system of having a ’do to’ list in each room. I’ve adapted these lists and you can print them out below if you think the system would work in your house. The advantage of this system is it gives everyone a clear idea of things to do and is easy to find. Who does what will depend on the age of your child/ren. There are five sheets: Living Area, Kitchen, Bedroom, Bathroom and Toilet. The sheets could be laminated and reused with a wipe-off pen. Click on the image to print out all five sheets.
You may need to use trial and error to see what sort of system works for your family.
More Free templates.
************************
Here are some helpful blog posts on this subject.
SquiggleMum’s Helping Hands - See how Cath manages to do housework with two young children in the house.
Julie’s Under 30 Minutes - See how Julie manages to do only 30 minutes of housework a day.
Michelle’s Putting Kids to Work- Read how Michelle gradually introduced housework to her children in 5 stages.
Click here to see Michelle’s schedule for her son aged nine.
************************
If you are looking for routine reward charts I like these companies:
Little Billies - Wide range of charts. Especially good for young children.
Magnetic Moves - Wide range of charts. Especially good for school aged children.
Sunny Mummy Magnets - Family organisation made easy.
