The Story Of The Time I Took Over Washing The Dishes

In our house growing up, we kids were assigned certain chores around the house. I'm sure you had to do some of that as well. One of my jobs was to take the aluminum cans from the recycling bin, wash them out and crush them in the can crusher.  Then I was supposed to take them to the garage, where my Dad would take them to the recycling center and they've give you a nickel per can or something.

One of my other jobs was that I was supposed to clean the bathroom. I had to make sure the floor was clean, the sink was washed down and wiped up, toilet clean, shelves clean, stuff organized, you dig.  One of my sister's chores was to do the dishes.

Don't kill me for this story, Kell.  Anyway.  My sister, of course, did not enjoy washing the dishes.  Neither did I, but then, does anybody really LIKE doing the dishes? I mean, that's why it's a chore.  You do it because you have to, not because you want to.  Otherwise I would just call sitting on my couch with my cat watching BTS videos a chore.

So anyway, one day my dear, wonderful, not annoyed with me writing about her sister decided that she'd had just about enough of this whole dish thing.  So she proposed, let's switch chores.  You do the dishes, I'll clean the bathroom. I went for it, because my parents had a speaker stereo system right next to the kitchen and I could play my music while I was doing the dishes.  Mom made us switch back, though, because "I like the way you clean the bathroom better".

Back to dishworld she had to go.  She was just as frustrated, though, and dreaded doing the dishes every day.  Then one day, a flash of imagination! You can't wash dishes that aren't there, right? Sneakily, stealthily, her plan went into action.  We don't need all these forks and spoons after all, right?  Just chuck half of them into the garbage! Done, problem solved.

Or so she thought.  Of COURSE my Mom spotted that perfectly good silverware in the trash can.  So that plan didn't work, and there was probably some kind of discussion about that.  So the third plan went into effect- popularity.  Good ol sis would just go out with friends after school. She'd stay out til right about when Mom and Dad got home.  Now, those dishes had to be done by the time they got home.  And you know me, I'm a goody goody. I didn't want the folks to get mad, and... I was home.  Not doing anything.

So eventually, I just started doing the dishes after school.  I'd still crunch up the cans, and I'd clean the bathroom every week.  My memory gets fuzzy here, but I think she picked up another chore just to do good by me.  What it was, though, I don't remember.

What kind of chores did you do as a kid? Did you ever try to get out of them? If you did, how'd you get around it?  Did your parents find out? What do you make your kids do now, chore wise?

Dishingly yours,
Behka