Dishwashing
Jun. 12th, 2013 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterSome time in my early adolescent years, my parents asked my brother, myself, and my younger sister to help out with elements of dinner preparation and clean-up. One sibling was put in charge of setting the table, one sibling had to make salad, and one sibling had the choice of either clearing the table/loading the dishwasher/setting things up to hand-wash dishes, or doing the hand-wash dishes.
For some reason, despite the fact that clearing the table/etc. was less work than doing the hand-wash dishes, I chose to hand-wash the dishes. There was one aspect of hand-washing the dishes that I particularly loathed: washing out plastic bags. My parents re-used plastic bags as best they could, so they would always get washed at the end of the hand-washing. The thing I hated about them was hanging them up to dry, because I was relatively short and they had to be hung up high, so I would inevitably find myself with dishwater running down to my elbows and dripping off of my arms.
I hated it all so much that one night, I threw a tantrum (of sorts) and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom. My father chased after me and grabbed me by the ankle as I tried to escape upstairs, and firmly told me that I *had to* go and finish washing the dishes. I came back down the stairs and did so.
My parents did an excellent job of raising us kids (and I'm not just saying that because they read this blog, or because it's Father's Day on Sunday!). I'm now grateful for how patient they were with us when we slacked off on our chores, and am glad that my father took the time to teach me how to wash dishes efficiently and well. When you're a kid, you live in someone else's household, so someone else sets the rules (or not) and you have to follow them whether you like it or not. Parents so often use the phrase "Because I said so" instead of explaining why chores need to get done, for so many reasons (e.g. they've already tried explaining or the kid isn't old enough to really understand the consequences of not doing something).
Every once and a while, when I have to do something I'd rather not do, I think back to that evening of dishwashing. For the most part, my family's pretty mild-mannered, and while I'm sure we required a lot of nagging to get chores done, we rarely required much more than that. An aspect of my personality that I hope to continue to improve upon is my ability to take care of the unappealing chores without engaging in excessive whining (I'm looking at you, grassy lawn of grass that just keeps on growing). Maybe I'll reach that Zen-like state of calm some day in the next sixty years.
For some reason, despite the fact that clearing the table/etc. was less work than doing the hand-wash dishes, I chose to hand-wash the dishes. There was one aspect of hand-washing the dishes that I particularly loathed: washing out plastic bags. My parents re-used plastic bags as best they could, so they would always get washed at the end of the hand-washing. The thing I hated about them was hanging them up to dry, because I was relatively short and they had to be hung up high, so I would inevitably find myself with dishwater running down to my elbows and dripping off of my arms.
I hated it all so much that one night, I threw a tantrum (of sorts) and ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom. My father chased after me and grabbed me by the ankle as I tried to escape upstairs, and firmly told me that I *had to* go and finish washing the dishes. I came back down the stairs and did so.
My parents did an excellent job of raising us kids (and I'm not just saying that because they read this blog, or because it's Father's Day on Sunday!). I'm now grateful for how patient they were with us when we slacked off on our chores, and am glad that my father took the time to teach me how to wash dishes efficiently and well. When you're a kid, you live in someone else's household, so someone else sets the rules (or not) and you have to follow them whether you like it or not. Parents so often use the phrase "Because I said so" instead of explaining why chores need to get done, for so many reasons (e.g. they've already tried explaining or the kid isn't old enough to really understand the consequences of not doing something).
Every once and a while, when I have to do something I'd rather not do, I think back to that evening of dishwashing. For the most part, my family's pretty mild-mannered, and while I'm sure we required a lot of nagging to get chores done, we rarely required much more than that. An aspect of my personality that I hope to continue to improve upon is my ability to take care of the unappealing chores without engaging in excessive whining (I'm looking at you, grassy lawn of grass that just keeps on growing). Maybe I'll reach that Zen-like state of calm some day in the next sixty years.
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Dishwashing
Date: 2013-06-13 03:33 am (UTC)Your charming retrospective of childhood chores and parents is sweetly drawn. Reminds me how decades later, my younger brother is still angry with me because of his perception that I shirked out of my share of washing and wiping dishes. Maybe I did!
Lovely images of washing out plastic bags and getting wet plus your father catching you by the ankle. Thank goodness we haven't come up with robots or apps that will catch a child's ankle on the stairs and return the errant lass to duty. Thanks for a fun post! Jim