Clean Up In Aisle 5

Ever since Amazing Grace was 18 months old, I've had a job chart for my kids. It started out as just a little thing with pictures of a hair brush & clothes so that she could check off when she got dressed & had me do her hair. It evolved as she got older & more capable of actually doing things around the house.

Now that all my kids are no longer knee high to a grasshopper & can read, the chart consists of the jobs I require to be done every day. Each child has a day of the week that they are in charge of. After dinner on their day, the child in charge is to do all the jobs.

They like this method better than the Each Child Has 3 Jobs To Do Each Day chart that I was implementing for years before. They'd rather have 1 day to do it all & 6 days off than a little bit each day.

I say whatever floats their boat.

The other day, when it was Ginger Girl's day to do the jobs, the bottom drawer in the bathroom cabinet had broken on me. I told hubby that I left everything exactly as it occurred so that he could use the information of how everything fell out of the drawer to help him assess the situation & he could have an easier time figuring out how to fix the drawer. I really just didn't feel like bending over, picking up the drawer, standing up, figuring out how to piece that drawer back together, sliding the drawer back into its cubby spot, bending over, picking up each box of tampons & pads, putting them back in the drawer, putting the scattered tampons & pads back into their respective boxes, standing up, & closing the drawer. See? When you lay out all the steps to fixing a drawer, it doesn't sound fun, does it?

I didn't have time, yo! I was in a hurry.

I went on my merry way for the day & totally forgot about that damn drawer. Until I got home & saw the mess in the bathroom. I needed a scapegoat. Ah! The 9 year old.

Me: Oh, sweetheart, you haven't cleaned the bathroom yet, have you now? (I didn't say it anything like that but it sounds British worded that way & I prefer that to my big ol' nasally Wisconsin accent)

Ginger Girl: Not yet. I'll do it after this.

Me: I don't want you to forget to pick up your mess in the bathroom. (thinking that maybe if I call it her mess, she'll take responsibility for it & no one will know I left it there)

Ginger Girl, without missing a beat: I'm sorry, I just have a big flow. I never know when I'm going to need a tampon & it's easier to get one if they're all over the floor. I can just grab one instead of having to open the drawer & do all that work. Sometimes the flow just says 'hey, i want to be seen' & it flows out of the pad & i have to get a new one. It's horrible. When my flow is over I won't need them all over anymore.

No, I don't know where she gets it from.