I haven’t been doing much lately. It has been a conscious decision to slow down. Most of the day, I resisted the urge to be on my feet. I lounged in bed or on the couch, read the blogs, checked my email accounts, and tried to relax. My efforts to relax did not work. I tried taking a hot shower in the middle of the day. This, also, didn’t help me to relax.
After picking BoBo up from the last of three football games (he stayed to watch the two games following his), I announced that I was injured. I felt my kids needed to be reminded. I stated that the house needed to be cleaned and that I could no longer do it alone. I stated that it wasn’t even clean enough to bring in a cleaning service to do it for us.
So I began assigning duties. These duties were previously their chores but somehow they got out of actually doing them so they haven’t been benefiting from allowance. Today, they would do these chores and more.
BoBo began with sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathroom mirrors and sliding glass doors. YaYa emptied the waste baskets and cleaned the toilets. I know cleaning toilets sounds harsh, but he actually likes this job and I am happy to give it up (even if I have to go behind him and finish up). They both carried their clothing and shoes from the family areas to their rooms and then they cleaned their rooms.
I began with the kitchen and bathroom counters, and the scouring the kitchen and bathroom sinks. I vacuumed the downstairs and sent BoBo upstairs with the vacuum later on. I mopped the kitchen floor, and had YaYa mop the dining room.
Our house is now presentable and I can finally relax. We all can.
Wes says
A valuable lesson learned. Now where are my children?