Kids make a lot of mistakes when helping out around the house. If you have teenagers, you might even find that they are purposefully incompetent. It's an age old teenager strategy that has been passed down through the ages. "If you do a lousy job, parents won't ask for your help." My kids often use this strategy with great success. Probably because I haven't "Taken Time for Training."
One day this week, my daughter was in charge of loading and starting the dishwasher. I walked into the house and heard the dishwasher running, but there was a very strong detergent smell. I looked in the trash can and saw two empty rinse agent bottles. Needless to say, those dishes were rinsed very well. We had a discussion about which dish washing detergent goes in the dishwasher and how the rinse agent is used.
Don't even get me started on my son's room. He has his own unique organizational system. As near as I can tell, this involves pushing things around on the floor and stacking things on every available counter space. Last week I asked him to clean his room. After he went to school I checked to see if he had made any progress. It didn't look any different to me except that there were a few more items underneath his bed (Including a check I had written two weeks ago that he was supposed to turn into school for his participation in track.)
My point is...I haven't done a very good job in the past of "Taking Time for Training". Getting started is the hard part because it will actually take more time at first. But I know in the long run it will save time when my kids are helping out more around the house. And I'm sure their future college roommates will thank me. :-)
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