Boys!

"Hell hath no fury than that of a woman scorned" is not an entirely applicable quote but it does sum things up quite well in this instance.

One morning some time ago (I'm a bit behind on this blog post) I came into the kitchen while the boys were eating breakfast to find that they must have been playing catapult with their spoons and cereal. How exactly they did it I am not sure but there was cereal and milk on the walls up to the height of 6 feet and 5 feet away from the table. One of my banes in life is that the previous owner of our house for some reason beyond all logic put carpet in the dining room. Carpet in a dining room with three young children requires a lot of cleaning. One reason why we bought a carpet shampooer. I had just the day before shampooed the carpet. Keep this in mind as I walk in to find my boys in the middle of this mess. Was I mad? You bet! After a trip to the proverbial woodshed I set out to show the boys what it was like to clean up after their mess. Once the cereal and milk were cleaned I found that my fury had not abated. I was a woman scorned. So, I set out to show the boys was it was like to be a mom and clean up after children all day long.

Cleaning the cereal off the walls, or at least what they could reach. See the picture above them? The milk was up to the top of the frame.

The boys spend the next 3 hours doing housework.

A kitchen floor is never clean so why not clean that?

At this point the cereal and milk was cleaned but there were many spots around that had come about from living in a house for three years.

Mopping.

They also cleaned up the entire basement and the backyard. I kept asking them if it was fun to clean up all these messes. Those boys of mine kept saying "yes". I don't think they quite got it. Finally after hours Nathaniel said "no". To which I replied "Do you think Mommy likes doing all this work and cleaning up after you?"

Nathaniel: "no"

He was off the hook and was allowed to go play. While all this was going on Nora was having a grand old time playing without interruption from brothers or mom.

Timmy however still thought mom just cleaned the house for fun so he got to continue cleaning. He got to vacuum the stairs.

Only after that did he consent and admit that mom's job was no fun, no fun at all.

Now pray this lesson sticks!