January 20th, 2015. Operation; RJ and The Bear pull their weight commenced today. Get home from work today, am greeted with a kiss from The Wife, a smile from Mealie K and a ‘Can we play on the Wii” from The Bear and RJ. Not a “Hi, Dad,” or anything that would make me feel loved or missed, just straight down to business. So I do the whole “Pretend I’m having a different more pleasing conversation where I play the role of both child and parent,” which generally leads to them talking to me a bit nicer to start with, asking how I am, how my day was and then straight back into the “Can we play on the Wii?” I then give the standard “Not right now” and we all go about our days. Mere minutes later, when I’m on the toilet in our en suite, the boys appear and it recommences again. Seriously, can’t a parent just go the toilet in peace? I progress to the “Maybe when Mum goes to the gym, but I have a few jobs to do first.” This usally buys me a bit more time, but The Bear surprised me today. “Why don’t we help you with your jobs, then you’ll be done quicker and we can play on the Wii sooner?” Great idea! We shake on it then go about our business again. Shortly after that, The Wife heads off to the gym and it’s time to see if the boys put their money where their mouths are. First job: Take clothes of the line. Now, this isn’t actually something they can help with, as they are both little shorties, so can’t reach the line, but that can help sort and put away, so we give that a try. What could go wrong there? How about the easiest (in their minds) way to tell whose clothes are whose is to try them on. EVERY PIECE OF CLOTHING! Even the pink dresses. So what would normally take me two minutes to finish was a fifteen minute job which ended with The Bear having sore ears cause he got one of Mealie K’s dresses stuck on his head and I had to pull it off. But still, they helped and that’s the main thing. Second job: Empty and reload the dishwasher. Again, what could go wrong? How about not being specific about what to do when you pick up a cup out of the sink (empty the cup first) and having them spill water all over the floor which actually creates more work than they helped to do, but nothing was dropped and broken and no one was stabbed with a knife, so I’m putting that in the ‘win’ basket. So hopefully this type of thing could become regular and the boys help out a bit more but I’ve learnt to be waaaay more specific about the tasks, which you would think I would have learnt by now, but there you go. Of course, it meant that I had to follow through and let them play on the Wii, which loosely translates to me playing on the Wii and them yelling conflicting orders at me from both sides. Survived another day and didnt emotionally scar anyone. GET YOUR DAD ON!
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 10:33:56 +0000
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