Whistle While You Work

We've had a cleaning crew every Tuesday for longer than Hyrum has been alive.

I know. I'm spoiled.

Every Monday night we pick up the house, and every Tuesday afternoon when the kids come home from school, the house is magically clean.

Four weeks ago was our last cleaning service. As they walked to their cars, the boss said this would be their last time until the pandemic/social isolating is over.

My kids were less than thrilled when I told them they were my new Tuesday morning cleaning crew.

Don't get me wrong. They know how to clean (as well as most intransigent kids are) and they did all the chores on Saturday. Cecy and her crew mostly did my work for me--beds, blinds, baseboards, etc., plus a middle-of-the-week cleaning that got us through to Saturday each week when the kids half-baked it. In the back of my mind I'd often thought that I was doing their future spouses a disservice by having a cleaning crew, but they inherited their laziness and job avoidance from somewhere, and I never got around to teaching them the fine art of cleaning a house top to bottom in one day.

I told them they could split the money I pay Cecy and her crew, and they begrudgingly agreed that Tuesday mornings would be a break from school and an introduction to paid jobs.

The first week was a little rough. It took much longer than they thought and it wasn't as thorough as I thought. But the second week we got into a little better rhythm.

They did a great job the second time--the key is music they all like, I discovered.

Yesterday was not the sing-song rosy experience of last week. One anonymous member of my crew lamented, "WE DON'T WANT TO DO THIS! YOU ARE MAKING US DO THIS!" Yep. It was a little bit rough. Blame it on quarantine emotions, right?

I don't know how many weeks it will take for them to figure out that stuffing wrappers and dirty dishes under the couch just creates MORE work later. Maybe this will be the week. Lucky for them (and for ME--sarcasm font required here) we have at least a few more weeks to figure it all out. 

Thank you, COVID-19 and your quarantine, for giving me the opportunity to further teach/torture my children.