Who’s Responsible, Again?
“On the days I accomplish the most…it looks like I haven’t done a darned thing”. This quote from today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is true. Looking at that mess carefully, let’s see what it is that hasn’t been done:
Chesterfield: A stuffed teddy, a stuff rabbit, 2 alphabetical cubes – These belong to the kids, but Lizzie is too little to climb onto the chesterfield, so Mike is the culprit. The pair of pants – This belongs to John, and I really don’t want to know why John leaves his pants on the chesterfield in the living room.
Coffee table: Coffee cup with spilled coffee. Turned over soda can. Bowl with chips fallen out. Piece of half-eaten cheese. All of these, except possibly the coffee cup are probably the fault of John Patterson.
End table : Flying saucer toy – Probably Mike.
Fireplace: A log, a toy egg, a toy block. The log probably belongs there. The toys are probably Lizzie.
Matching chair: A raggedy doll. Lizzie.
Floor: Laundry basket – Elly, Drum, ball, storybook – Mike or Lizzie. Newspaper, box, buzz saw blade, gear, apple core (Baltimore) – John Patterson.
After a thorough examination I find that of the items in this mess, Elly is probably responsible for the coffee cup and the laundry basket. Oh, and one other thing, TRAINING HER FAMILY TO PICK UP THEIR OWN TRASH!!!
Chesterfield: A stuffed teddy, a stuff rabbit, 2 alphabetical cubes – These belong to the kids, but Lizzie is too little to climb onto the chesterfield, so Mike is the culprit. The pair of pants – This belongs to John, and I really don’t want to know why John leaves his pants on the chesterfield in the living room.
Coffee table: Coffee cup with spilled coffee. Turned over soda can. Bowl with chips fallen out. Piece of half-eaten cheese. All of these, except possibly the coffee cup are probably the fault of John Patterson.
End table : Flying saucer toy – Probably Mike.
Fireplace: A log, a toy egg, a toy block. The log probably belongs there. The toys are probably Lizzie.
Matching chair: A raggedy doll. Lizzie.
Floor: Laundry basket – Elly, Drum, ball, storybook – Mike or Lizzie. Newspaper, box, buzz saw blade, gear, apple core (Baltimore) – John Patterson.
After a thorough examination I find that of the items in this mess, Elly is probably responsible for the coffee cup and the laundry basket. Oh, and one other thing, TRAINING HER FAMILY TO PICK UP THEIR OWN TRASH!!!
posted by howard at 11:27 PM
4 Comments:
I'm a slob, I admit it. But even I wouldn't leave a coffee cup with coffee in it on the floor. Or an apple core, chips, cheese, or other food just laying around.
Now, perhaps it is because I am lazy and a slob, but I also wouldn't try to do everything Elly has done in one day. Just the closets would be an entire weekend's project for me, and that's in an apartment. Elly's accomplished a ridiculous amount, and it will stay accomplished, no matter what the living room looks like right now. But she's sent into a vortex of despair because the living room is a mess. I think she needs some cognitive therapy.
howard,
After a thorough examination I find that of the items in this mess, Elly is probably responsible for the coffee cup and the laundry basket. Oh, and one other thing, TRAINING HER FAMILY TO PICK UP THEIR OWN TRASH!!!
As usual, you've cut right to the quick. Elly is feeling like a worthless failure because her family are lazy and entitled. If she were to stand up for herself and make them clean instead of doing it herself because-that's-her-job, she'd have an easier time of things.
clio-1
Elly's accomplished a ridiculous amount, and it will stay accomplished, no matter what the living room looks like right now. But she's sent into a vortex of despair because the living room is a mess. I think she needs some cognitive therapy.
I think the lazy family who left her a mess to clean up need to be taught how to pick up after themselves. Elly might have gotten more efficient at cleaning up after them but she never mastered the art of getting them to do their own work.
I'm a slob, I admit it. But even I wouldn't leave a coffee cup with coffee in it on the floor. Or an apple core, chips, cheese, or other food just laying around.
Seriously. That's the difference between messy and filthy.
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