Keeping Ahead of Chores

Let me tell you something: if you have teenagers living in your house, then you have a mess that is hard to manage. Since I decided that I'm kind of chores-boss around here, meaning I do a huge proportion of them not that I direct people to do them (the kids being told to do a chore means dragging them out of their rooms, asking them, getting lip, yelling at them, watching them suck at it, getting attitude, and then, after three times as much time as I'd need to do the chore has passed, having to redo the chore myself because of their lack of care, attention to detail, coordination, and general ability -- no thanks, I'll just wash the freaking dishes myself), I did a huge amount of chores yesterday, failing only in the yard work category (I worked on my injured arm muscles while my wife did some picking and weeding in the garden). I even did the laundry without having been asked to do the laundry!

I decided that keeping ahead of the chores would be one of the only ways not to lose it (though lose it I nearly did as I finished the dishes and the children wandered in with what appeared to be almost as many dishes as I had just washed, almost all crusted over with some crap they left on there for days, tucked safely somewhere like under their beds or just in the middle of the floors in their generally toxic rooms). That built up a lot of momentum that I used to get a lot of things done and to be very helpful around the house. If you're curious, yes, there were benefits beyond having a nice, clean house. It's probably the best way that I can help out, and it seems to keep the overall stress level of my wife considerably lower than when the chores start piling up.

I'll probably run to the grocery store (unbidden?) in a little bit and get some stuff for us to eat, since other than melons, we're running low on just about everything that can be used as a staple.