Anything can be fun

Those who know me know that I can have fun doing just about anything. Those who know me best, know that I can nearly always turn it into a game or competition. I knew this attribute was beginning to rub off on the children when I asked them all what was the most fun thing we had done as a family since Kerry and I got married and one of them said "washing the dishes together." You can faint if you want to, I almost did. Truly, I was just as shocked as you are, especially since we took them to Disneyland only a few months previous.

So now you are wondering how in the world you get a child to say that washing dishes is fun, right? Well, I am not sure of an exact formula, but here are some of the things that are vital components (I think).

1. Do it all together; everyone has a job - In our family there are too many people to have just one washing, rinsing, drying, and putting away. So, being the efficiency expert, I couldn't help noticing where the bottle neck in the process was and stacking kids there. Usually, I wash (unless someone didn't clear their plate after dinner and then they have to wash and I rinse). One child rinses, three children dry, and Kerry has to put them away.

2. Laugh a lot - Usually someone is getting wet (usually me because the child that is rinsing "accidentally" sprays me). Also because I usually find a way to get the ones who laugh the loudest wet too.

3. Sing silly songs

4. Talk to each other - Sometimes I will ask the children, "so, what is the best thing that happened to you today", or "What is the funniest thing that happened at school today". Once we were doing this and the children were were actually disappointed when we were done with the dishes (probably a sign I need to spend more time talking to them).

5. Play a game - Typically our game is try to stack the dishes up and get dad behind. The kids think it is hilarious when we all get done and Kerry still has a few dishes left to put away. He, of course, plays the victim role for them, whining about how he is always the last one done - this makes them laugh every time.

OK so last night we added a new dimension to our dish washing games, everyone tries to guess the exact time we will be done with the dishes and I write it down and see who is the closest to the actual time. When we were writing down our times Carmen said "I am going to guess the exact same time as Mom, if she is right I am also right, and if I loose, she will have to admit she is wrong. It's a win-win! (For the record Carmen and I were both right). Last night we actually finished in exactly 9 minutes! Tobias was trying to change his time because he realized how quickly we were going to get finished so I asked him if he would rather be be wrong or be a cheater he smiled and said, "I'd rather be a cheater" OK looking back it was a really bad question. Still, it made us laugh.

Life is great! Especially when you find ways to turn mundane chores of life into family fun.