One year and counting

It seemed to dawn on both Gary and I this weekend.

A year from now, Jennifer will be 18. And technically at least, a grown up.

So in light of that rapidly approaching date, we're going to make some new house rules.

She starts helping me pay the bills and monitor the savings account. This way, she'll know when I say "We don't have any $$ for that." I'm not making it up.

She's going to shop for the household one time a month (for the week) and cook dinner one time a week. AND, she's going to start washing her own laundry.

I know, I know, you're asking why she isn't doing that now. Well, blame her dad on that one. He's a bit of a fanatic about doing laundry all the time. Just as I'm a bit of a fanatic on cleaning up the kitchen. So Jennifer knows if she waits, guess what will be done for her?

We'll have to stop doing that.

Mom, where are the gardening tools?

I guess this is a marker of just how bored my daughter is today. I'm back at work after two weeks (sigh) and she's home and supposed to be cleaning up her bathroom and the tv room.

And oh, she doesn't want to go to volleyball tonight. So, I told her fine on the v-ball, the clippers should be out on the deck and the leather gloves somewhere inside the house, so the dog won't eat them and cost us $500 in vet bills.

So, the weeds will get pulled. But as for the toilet scrubbed, probably not.

Lazy Sunday

Jennifer and I are all for "a day of rest."

My husband, not so much. He's out weeding the front lawn now. And washing the car. And earlier he was trimming.

On the other hand, Jennifer and I can watch TV and read a book all day long, Sunday or no. We're thinking of soon just playing hooky from the world (one day only) and not telling Gary. He just wouldn't understand.

Wash that (*& dish...please

My hubby and i don't agree on chores.

I think regardless of homework, unless it's finals time, she should clean up the dishes, all the dishes, w/o help. And clean up her room and bathroom every week. And pick up her darn clothes every day, instead of leaving them piled in her room, or in the the middle of the bathroom floor.

But I'm really a stickler on the dishes. Probably because I did the dishes when I was a kid and I don't remember my parents ever giving me an excuse to get out of that, unless I was sick and flat on my back. I also mowed the lawn, cleaned out the catbox, cleaned my room and weeded the garden (s) as a matter or course. And also worked at Taco Time after school.

I know Gary did the same drill.

However, with Jennifer, he's a softy, and will often do the dishes for her every night. I'm more stubborn, as 2 pots and pans that are in the sink now attest to.

she says she'll do them, but she never does. Gary says its more important for him to have her get her homework done, or ahead on her homework than get those dishes done. I agree, it is more important, BUT when I know she spent a half hour on her nails last night (she came and showed them to me) and the dishes still didn't get done...well, you see my point.

What a grouch

Waking up the daughter is hazardous business, esp. when you're asking her to do her chores (in this case, clean up the dinner dishes).

So she comes out and gets it down, grumbles when I try to give her a hug and stomps into the TV room to switch the tv off my program (had to take the dog for a walk anyway) and watch Miami...social, or some such reality tv show where people with way too much $$ and time are followed around by camera.

Chores, please do them

My best friend of 40 years may arrive tomorrow (I say may, because the appearance of Dawn is always a crap shoot).

It was like that when were young and it is now.

Nevertheless, I'm trying to convince my daughter to clean up the bathroom, and I"ve actually tackled the rat's nest under the phone, which will probably start growing again 9 am PST tomorrow. But for now, it's clean.

I know and Dawn knows I'm not the best of housekeepers. But I figure it's been 3 years since I"ve seen here (she lives in Denmark with her family), so I'll make the effort.

Getting this house clean means making an attempt to clean up the small piles, not the entire house. That would just be too discouraging.

That's a washing machine in front of you

And you need to set the water to cold.

No that's the left-hand knob as you're looking at it.

Then you need to set the middle knob to cold and cold.

OK, finally, you see the knob on the far right? Set that to six minutes.

Will wonders never cease. My daughter called me up at work today to ask HOW TO DO THE WASH. Specifically, the whites she needed for her basketball game tonight. I'd like to think she'd gotten the urge to pitch in, just because it's the right thing to do. But I"ll take any motivation I can get.

I then went off to heat up my lunch, and came back to find my cell phone on my keyboard. It had obviously buzzed itself there, so I looked and sure 'nough...jennifer.

So I called back.

"No, never mind, I figured it out."

Okay. I'm not going to ask.

Homework, dishes

Jennifer's doing homework again, and probably will be until 9 pm tonight. So I'll probably end up doing the dishes again.

I remember that somehow, when I was a teenager, I managed to do both. I'm trying to decide if she has more homework or I'm just a softer touch than my mom was. Probably a mixture of both.

Getting a teenager to do chores, and other thankless tasks

Jennifer was supposed to water Gary's orchids yesterday.

She didn't, and sheepishly admitted the omission when dad came home last night. She promised to do it if I cleared away the spider webs from the faucet (what spider webs?) and as I got up to chase away phantom webs, she and gary got into a mock wrestling match. She got her finger kinked the wrong way, got miffed and refused to water said plants. Gary got mad and said he water the ((*& plants and stalked off toward the green house. Oy.

So I've left a list of chores for her to do today, or else she's going to lose her texting privileges. Clean up her bathroom, vacuum the rug, and water the damn orchids.

Chores, How Much of a Biach Should I Be?

I wouldn't call it an ongoing battle. More like a slow simmer.

Chores. My daughter doesn't seem to know the meaning. She is supposed to clean here room (which she does when it finally threatens to swallow her whole), clean her bathroom and clean up the dishes every night. And oh, yeah, feed the cats.

Well, I ususally end up feeding the cats, and I have to ask, pretty much every night, to get the the dishes cleaned up. She does get $7.50 a week, but again, it's usually hard to get her to do the chores to earn this $$.