The Fun List
One of the great things about having two little tiny people at home who don’t go to school (and it’s the middle of summer) is that there’s nothing we really have to, have to do during the day. I mean, yeah, we need to eat, but that’s about it. Some days, we really haven’t been getting out of our pajamas, like, all day.
It’s the dog days of summer, hot enough that I do everything I can to try and keep the kids either indoors or in water once noon hits.
But of course, one of the tricky things is that there’s nothing we really have to have to do, and routine is good for kids. Obviously, happily, so good. Gulp. So in an attempt to have a little more of a system around here, I’ve been making little chore lists for us for us to get through in the morning before Fritz does his reading practice. The first few days I felt like it was just sheer luck that the boys were into it, but now I’m realizing they really do like it. They like learning things and feeling big enough and smart enough to do them on their own.
Yesterday, I got out a bright orange piece of card stock left over from folding paper pterodactyls (cranes) and scribbled out two lists. One, a need-to-do list, and the other, I dubbed The Fun List. Fritz was helping me come up with things for The Fun List.
We had:
Drink root beer with lunch
Watch a movie
Go swimming
So, I started adding things to my need-to-do list:
Clean the bathrooms
Scrub the kitchen floor
Fold laundry
“Mommy! Why didn’t you put cleaning the bathrooms on the fun list? It belongs on the fun list!” Fritz, said, insistently, when I read the list to him.
“And scrubbing the floor? I LOVE scrubbing the floor!”
Here, Lars came in holding his own small little green scrubber.
“Lobe scrubbing floor mommy!”
So it’s official. The chores are officially part of The Fun List. I don’t really expect them to be fun forever, and I feel super lucky to have two little guys Cinderella-scrubbing the floor next to me, pretend ice-skating over the soapy suds.
There’s a hilarious guy somewhere on the internet (TikTok? Reels?) who makes little skits of parents comparing the outrageously profound things their kids say (and, you know, obviously didn’t say). And now, WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! This post is in serious danger of becoming one of those reels (TikToks?). But the more Fritz has reminded me, “Mom, this is The FUN List, the more I’ve enjoyed watering the garden every morning, scrubbing the kitchen floors every day (yes, I’m sad to say, it’s necessary. Imagine if a sponge and a magnet magically imbued with dirt-attracting properties had a baby, and you have our kitchen tile) and wiping down the bathrooms.
We take very good care of our dinos around here
It turns out it actually does make a big difference. Our roses are stretching out their little rosey limbs and cranking out blooms, our feet all stay clean while we pad around the kitchen making chocolate chip cookies, and super clean bathrooms are quite luxurious.
So long live The Fun List.
