It's Time for a New Strategery, George

For the past 8 years I've reference a lot of things in my life as being BT (before triplets) or AT (after triplets). The process of being pregnant with, giving birth to, and caring for three infants at the same time was more overwhelming and all-consuming than any event in my life up to that point.

But after this year I may need some new reference points. BW and AW. Before wedding (and all of the preparation & travel involved) and after wedding. It's been that all-consuming and sometimes overwhelming. Not on the scale of gestating three babies, perhaps. But certainly in relationship to "normal" life.

BW we had a pretty good chore system going on in our home. Things got done in a reasonable fashion and the house was generally in decent order. AW has been a different story. And I knew in my heart of hearts that I'd gotten all of the good I was going to get out of that cleaning plan anyway. So Sunday for family night I stuffed my kids full of warm chocolate chip cookies and presented my new plan.

First off, the new laundry plan. Up to this point one of the daily chores has been to gather the laundry from each bedroom and take it to a consolidated point in the laundry room, where I do the laundry and then set the completed baskets in a row in what I fondly refer to as the "laundry hall of shame." Then at a convenient time the laundry boy (Jason) who is paid every month to fold & put away laundry, has a marathon folding session while watching episodes of West Wing way too loud. Unfortunately said laundry boy is probably getting a job any moment. And I know I cannot add all of that folding & putting away back into my life. So a new plan suggested by friend Christine: I will take each child's laundry, wash & dry it, and put it back on their bed in their basket. They will then be responsible for folding & putting away. I will do my best not to look in their drawers as poorly folded clothes really bugs me. Then I will just have to fold mine & Russ's and the household stuff. Hopefully that will be manageable.

Next the new cleaning plan. I've divided the house into 5 zones. The kitchen/entry area, the family room, the living room (aka the piano room, though it could just as well be known as the treadmill room), the school room, and the bathrooms. Each child is assigned to one zone for one week, and every day by dinner that zone must be tidy. The interesting thing about this has been that I had just read something in a parenting book that said that your teens need to be able to help make the rules. So instead of telling them what needed to be done in each zone, we took a big white board and went into each area and took suggestions. Now we have a list of things that have to happen in each zone daily or weekly--but the list came from them and not from me. Because the house was pretty well trashed after the weekend we actually did the cleaning as a group on Sunday night & Monday afternoon. That way no child had to start the week with his/her zone being such a mess. I think everyone appreciated that.

One of the great things already has been to see the little kids' eagerness to learn new chores. Hooray for that! This morning we had a bathroom cleaning-teaching session. I won't let them use the mildew spray but they did fine with the regular cleaning spray. (What a disgusting tub! It's obvious that AW not very much cleaning has been happening!) It's always my hope that my kids will go out into the world prepared to actually take care of themselves, and also shaped in significant ways by having had true responsibilities in taking care of our home as they grow up. Let's hope, anyway!