Cleaning Dry Erase Boards

Delegating tasks, and biting my tongue

    I don’t remember exactly how old I was, maybe around 12, which is our oldest son’s age now, when I made a concerted effort, without being asked, to clean up the kitchen after supper one night and wash the dishes. I cleared the table, wiped it down, filled the sink with hot, soapy water, washed the dishes and stacked all the clean dishes on the rack in the second sink. Then I made my way over to our stove with a wet rag and wiped that down. I don’t recall what we ate that night, but it involved a lot of cooking and preparatory work on the stove, and it was pretty messy.

    Afterward, my mom, who usually led the post-supper cleaning charge, took a glance at the clean dishes and was satisfied and appreciative…until her eyes found their way to the stove. At that point she became somewhat dissatisfied, and as I inspected in a closer fashion, I could see that some of my work had indeed been less than stellar.

    My mom, she wasn’t a happy camper, and I recall being a little taken aback by her reaction. After all, hadn’t I gone out of my way to help...to, as my wife loves to frame it for our sons today, “contribute to the family unit”?

    As a parent now, I understand my mom’s frustration completely. As she re-wetted the wash cloth and wiped down the stove a second time with vigor, enthusiasm and purpose, she indicated to me that there was really little point to me helping out with a task if I was going to do it in sub-par fashion, meaning she’d have to swoop in afterward and perform the same task a  second time.

    I’m no good at delegating tasks to others. I’d rather do additional tasks myself and know that they’re done my way than ask or tell someone else to do something and then sit there and wonder nervously and frustratingly why they aren’t doing the task in a more rapid fashion, or doing it in a way that more resembles my way.        

I’m guilty of it at work but, mostly, it’s as a parent these days that my struggles to sit back now and then and let others – our kids – take on added responsibility around the house are manifesting themselves. One son is a few months away from becoming an official teenager and the other one is almost 10. It’s a natural life progression for them to be expected to help out, and regular tasks, even some listed in on a dry-erase board in the kitchen, are a part of their daily existence. That dry erase board has so much writing on it these days – summer vacation just started, after all, and my wife has dropped the chores-will-be-finished-before-you-venture-out-with-your-friends hammer – that, according to our oldest’s slumped shoulders and depressed demeanor, I think he’d rather have seventh grade start on Monday.

Quartet Products – Quartet – Standard Dry-Erase Board, Melamine ...

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