Joy

Otherwise titled, why I'm glad my children are older.

Here is the annual routine:

Spring rolls around, the weather grows warmer, and the kids ask for their fans to be pulled out of storage, and placed in their rooms.

I hear the requests, but promptly forget about it; and so, it is never completed when I have the time to pull them out, wipe them down, and distribute them. 

So they keep asking, I keep forgetting, until one day, when I have five minutes and am tired of hearing the constant requests, I will pull them out.  Realize, that yes, they are dusty and the blades need to be cleaned, but I don't have the time, so I'll do it in the fall, when I put them away.

Fall rolls around, the frost has already arrived, and I finally remember to put away the fans ... after tripping over them for the umpteenth time and mumbling something under my breath about needing to put them away. 

Which I do, when I have 5 minutes to spare.  Again I look at them, realize they need cleaned, but why bother now, I'm just putting them in storage, I'll do it in the spring.  I'll have more time then. 

It is a vicious cycle. 

Until this year.  Yesterday, while I made dinner, I told ED (who had just asked for his fan for the 5th time in 2 weeks) to go ask Hubby to help him pull the fans out of storage.  Then, the kids were charged with cleaning the fans. 

Not a child's idea of a fun afternoon; then again, they got to take the fans a part and see the motor ... score!

This is why I like my aging children.  They are getting their own breakfast ... just watch out for the cereal crumbs on the floor.  They get themselves ready for bed.  They clean their own bathroom, and the globs of toothpaste they leave in the sink after getting themselves ready for bed. 

And, when they ask for, say, their fans.  They can pull them out of storage, and clean them, themselves.