Wednesday, November 28, 2007

I Love my Men, but...



...THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO HELP OUT MORE AROUND THE HOUSE!

(Oh--this is the Thanksgiving picture referred to in the previous post...the better of two.)

Back to the topic. My husband and I have been discussing the possibility of me increasing my hours at work to full time.

I've been telling my husband that life is going to change around here, if I go to work full-time. (currently I work part-time) He and the boys are going to have to help with the housework, laundry, cooking, dishes, etc, etc. Of course he says, "sure". But I'm not so sure.

My men are pretty dependent on me. It's probably my fault. It's much easier to do things myself and get them done faster and neater.

I'm not sure if I will end up going full-time---but just in case, I'm going to begin re-training my men.

My oldest son, already does his own laundry. He wears everything he owns...twice. Then he tries to stuff everything in the machine. (I had to talk to him about that because it threw the drum off the track during the spin cycle.) Then he forgets to put it in the dryer.

And...as of two weeks ago the boys are doing the dishes. The oldest on M W F and the youngest on T TH S. (Sunday everyone helps...or we eat out.) So far I've noticed that the frying pan, or any large apparatus doesn't get done. Or it is "soaking". It "soaks" all night and greets me first thing in the morning. Last night, I helped one boy clean the kitchen. One hour later the other boy made nachos and salsa for "dessert" and left grated cheese on the counter, salsa in the sink, and his plate in the living room.

I'll keep you posted about the training.

Any helpful hints from you working moms (or dads) out there?

My mother always gives great advice.

"Keep your sense of humor."

Have a nice day!

9 comments:

Sheila said...

Good luck if you go full-time. When I worked full-time, we ended up hiring a cleaning lady to come in every two weeks. It was less stressful than me constantly nagging. Husband did take to doing the laundry but I can understand you when you say, they don't do it as neat. He would fold my shirts wrong-side out whereas I always turned clothes inside out. Silly I guess. When the guys leave home for college or work, you will be amazed at how the laundry slacks off.

Susan Skitt said...

So nice to see you all! Oh, I hope you don't have to go full-time. I might have to go back part-time soon and I'm dreading it. I love being available to my family.

Now about the training... I don't have any tips. Let me know what's working for you. Keeping a sense of humor is definately important!

Dawn said...

Nice family picture! I love to see how people look behind those motorcycle helmets!

Good luck on retraining those guys. I have absolutely NO good advice. My husband took on the floors and bathrooms when I went to work full-time, and has kept it up since I went back to part-time, so I am blessed. But I don't have messy teen and YA guys around any more.

Becky Wolfe said...

Ahh, the re-training of men. Is it possible? My brother & I did the dishes together every single night. The only argument was who's turn to wash, so mom simplified it. On January 1st, she would alternate a B and M on every day of the year. No arguing with ink!

We also had to do some of the household cleaning every Saturday. Someone had to do the bathrooms, someone vacuumed & dusted (I hated doing the bathrooms & still do to this day - bless my husband for cleaning toilets)

Good luck with the learning process & your decision of whether or not to work full time! I hope that if you do, you'll have the help you need!

Diane Viere said...

Sharon,

Let me just say---if you DO have any luck with the re-training...I think you have a great subject matter for a best seller!!!!!

Great photo---I agree with Dawn, it's nice to see faces without helmets!

Blessings to you as you make these transitions.

Diane

Dawn said...

Re your comment to me today. We went to the same place ten years ago for our 25th anniversary and have been trying to get back there for all this time. We went the exact same time frame and had the best time experiencing Christmas in the tropics. I will definitely have to post about that, and how it compares this year. We went to a Christmas program in a little Catholic church up in the hills above Kona and it was beautiful. They did the Christmas story in hula - beautiful hand motions. Then we went to a lovely Christmas at a big open-air church with lots of wonderful music. Not everybody goes to church that often when they go to the islands, but since the church is such a big part of our lives, we wanted to see how they celebrated Christmas over there. We also went to a tiny chuch of our denomination on Sunday and saw their children's program. We're looking forward to more of the same this year!

More to come! 6 more days.

Beach Girl said...

Sounds like my house!

First runs out of clothes (they are in his room in a pile) and then takes them down to the basement thinking they'll actually get done right then and there. Nope, take a number, Bud.

Second leaves his in the bathroom, knowing he is supposed to take them down. I take them and stock pile them in my room until he informs that he needs laundry done because he's out of underwear and doesn't know where they are. Take a number; you're behind your big brother in line.

Then there's the kitchen....."We were supposed to load the dishes ion the dishwasher?"

It's never ending! :-)

Vanessa

Praise and Coffee said...

No advice here, I've trained them all to let me do it too!!

Smiles,
Sue

Unknown said...

Guilty of doing it all myself with my mother's help of course. She trained me and I trained my sons to straighten or clean up five things in each room that we visited. It doesn't get done every single time, but sure helps when the main cleaning needs to be done!

One of the times I talked with Travis on the phone he told me that Tony was doing the dishes!! Oh, for a picture of that!!!

You doing great if you have your sons doing the dishes...keep us posted on their progress!