Not even a full 24 hours later ... Oh, and thanks Amy ... blog material you want, blog material you get ...
Lunch finds DIL making creamy noodles for Married Son. The pot over-boils, flooding the burner with hot boiling milk. I *thought* she had cleaned the spill up.
Thought.
Five hours later ... DILs at work, their lunch dishes having been washed by moi. Guess I forgot to tell her washing dishes means clearing the table immediately after eating, putting dishes in sink (which she did, but she ignored the next steps), squirting dish soap in sink, running the water as hot as you can handle to fill the dish-tub, then taking the dish scrubby and WASHING the freaking things within a few minutes after having consumed the meal.
Does this make sense? Do you let your sink fill up with dirties? Personally, I follow the "clean as you go" mentality. Use pot(s), pile food into serving dish or on plate, and wash pot(s) immediately. No letting them soak while I enjoy the meal. Seems food tastes better to me knowing half the clean-up is already done!! I wash dishes within minutes of finishing the meal. Then I can sit, relax and let my food digest.
So ... back to the milk. Single Son is making his dinner. He's got the pan on the burner, burner on HIGH ... and voila! Poof!! Flames! I forgot how fast dried spilled over milk can catch fire.
And all this time, Grandson is under foot! You should have seen how fast he moved when the burner burst into flame. In the opposite direction of course, but boy, did he get out of the way! And his Daddy slept through all this fun.
I made Married Son get up before the smoke cleared ... it was time to feed the kid anyway.
Did I mention they may live here again, BUT I raised my kids. I'm not feeding, clothing, or entertaining someone else's child so they can nap the day away. Or PAY me compensation. I hear babysitters make a pretty penny these days. And I ain't cheap!
So Married Son is all grumpy now. Awwww, let me tune my violin. Play you a sad song. And while I'm serenading you with my song, get your ass off the computer and CLEAN up the book-bag, boxes and other crap you abandoned in the living areas!!
I need to have the FlyLady talk with my son and Grandson next I see.
Flylady? Flying ... yeah. I'll settle for a flutter.
And to think I turned down a dinner with a male friend at a French restaurant tonight. I would have missed all this fun!
You go girl...I am SOOOOO proud of you for standing your ground on this one...
ReplyDeleteEm, thanks. It's surprising how easy it really is to be able to stand my ground this time around. We know we've all tried living together in the past, with little success. Seems when I remember that I'm the Mom and I have every right to get bitchy if they make messes that at least I see results. The kids used to think I was real strict with them growing up - and I have two letters, one from each son when in bootcamp thanking me for being so strict with them. Now that they're grown up, well ... why should it be any different? They're not too old to still JUMP when Mommy has her rules to live by. That I have an extra "soldier" (DIL) to bark orders to, well that's my reward for being sooooo damned nice and keeping that revolving door open to them. Haha.
ReplyDeleteToo bad they're a little too old for the time out corner.
and meanwhile, in the laundry room, the cats were doing this:
ReplyDeletesee more Lolcats and funny pictures
OMG! Too funny! Thanks Amy! What a great way to start the day. Well, for me anyway. I'm not so sure about poor Fred!
ReplyDeleteI think I need to be stricter. I have one still in my nest that I would love to push out to fly solo. But I have to say all of mine have said they were glad that I was strict - they had their moments of thinking I was a terrible mother but have grown up enough to realise I was right!
ReplyDeleteHelen, good luck. Once established as a softie, it's harder to be seen as stricter. I had to go through a real bitchy period before they started taking me seriously again! Either that or they just started playing along to shut the bitchy mom up. LOL. Either way ... it's worked for the most part. Although Married Son refuses to budge if I nag ... but I told him time and again, "if you do it when I ask in the first place, I wouldn't need to nag. You are the one forcing me to nag, and therefore you're the one who generates the vicious cycle you hate so much." He's a work in progress, what can I say? LOL
ReplyDeleteMy kids don't stand a CHANCE of listening to me when they're grown...they do the same things that your grown kids do now! I have to nag before they ignore the first 'request' and then ignore the rest because the list of 'requests' just piles up throughout the day!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm ready for them (or 2/3 of them anyway!) to go back to school!
Leann, good luck!! It's now three weeks later and we still have the dish fight, the clothes laying around fight, the cluttered bathroom counter fight, the crap on the kitchen table fight ... and more.
ReplyDeleteWe're past the point of Fly Lady helping ... even though I'm stubborn and keep trying. I wouldn't MIND cleaning up after my sons (who both work long hard hours) but when someone keeps telling me "it's not my job" ... oh he** no!
As I type this, she's actually emptying the kitchen garbage bag, and wasn't even asked. Yes, I'm in shock ... somebody call CNN!!