Yesterday was the greatest day of my life. My five-year-old learned how to load and unload the dishwasher, and he thinks it’s the greatest job in the world. I spent the 35 minutes it took to help him through the process telling him how much I loved doing dishes when I was five. Let the brainwashing begin.
Unfortunately, now he thinks he’s an adult. Today he asked me if he could “help” me sharpen the knives. He offered to hold the knife.
The only downside to Harrison and his impressive cleaning skills is the fact that he kind of wants to be paid for everything he does. I can’t blame him, I’d like to get paid once in a while. And do not tell me the grocery budget counts as “payment” for anything. It so doesn’t.
Actually, Jason and I each get $20 every two weeks to “blow” (thank you Dave Ramsey). I got paid at three o’clock last Friday. I blew my $20 at five fifteen.
And Harrison? The second he gets four quarters he wants to run straight to the dollar store to spend it on some crap toy that will break before we pay for it.
My little apple, makes me so proud.
Just like his mama!
At least your brainwashing him at the wonderful age of acceptance! Keep up the good work.
My 7 year old daughter cleaned the bathroom the other week. Then, while teaching her brother how, they cleaned my bathroom.
at $2 a pop, they are way cheaper than my old housekeeper, and I don’t even care if they blow it on bubble gum.
I don’t want to burst your bubble so I’m not going to mention that they all think new jobs, like unloading the dishwasher, are fun for about the first two days. And then it’s all downhill from there.
HaHaHa! I’m thinking I should move my dishes to the bottom cupboards so that my kids can get in on the unloading action, too. I always tell them that I’ll share my salary with them when they help out around the house. That = $0.00, but I do give them an allowance that’s contingent on getting their weekly chores done, and yes, they want to go strait to Target to blow it.
I found you today on MMB. I totally put all the dishes in my lower cupboards just so my three boys could put them away. It is so worth it. And I agree with Alison, they think it’s great at first but soon you’ll be bribing them with the money just to get them to do it. I don’t really care though as long as I don’t have to do it.
great brainwashing.
just so you know, whatever you write about, I find myself smiling the entire time I’m reading.
🙂
I printed off dollars from the internet. That’s what my kids get paid- when they do work. My dollars only equal 25 cents though. I usually sell them a piece of candy for 4 of their dollars. They pick the treat, but my store only opens on Sat. so if they have no dollars, they get no treat.
Aawwww so sweet!
It’ll wear off soon 😉
Good job. Start with the dishes, move on to vacuming, dusting, laundry, making the beds ——child labor (phooey) Teach a child in the ways he should go ——–and you end up with more spare time (tee,hee)
I used to pay my little sister $7 to clean my room. It sounds like a pretty good rate, seeing as this was quite a few years ago, but I used to forget what color my carpet was because my room was so messy all of the time. So she really earned the 7 bucks.
So when are you going to teach him to vacuum and wash the car? You should do it soon while he’s only asking for quarters.
My kids looooove to clean.
But it’s a problem, most of the time.
Is it normal to have to wash dishes on the sly?