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Thursday, March 13, 2008

Routines Keep Us Grounded

By Rory McClannahan
Mountain View Telegraph
    No one likes housework. It's one of those tasks that never ends. Sometimes I think nudists have it right. If you don't wear clothes, you don't have to do laundry. Of course, I couldn't live without pockets, and, frankly, a lot of people would be uncomfortable with me walking around naked.
    But some good can come out of housework, besides having clean clothes and a clean bathroom. It can bring a couple closer together.
    Life is made up of routines and it's those routines that keep things sane. If everything was different every day it would be very tiring. You need something to keep you grounded, and that's where routines come in.
    Some of the routines in our household are comedic, like getting the kids to bathe or getting them ready for school. Most mornings I feel like a plate-spinner on "The Ed Sullivan Show," only the plates don't want to cooperate. The comedian Louis C.K. has a bit where he imagines a world where you can't go anywhere because an adult named "Bob" won't put his shoes on and won't give a reason for this behavior. A parent laughs at this because we know what it takes to convince our children to put shoes, or even clothes, on.
    On just about any morning, I have to cajole my little precious ones to put on clean clothes. The oldest has a shirt he really likes, and instead of changing it, he will put a clean shirt on over it and act like I can't see the dirty one underneath.
    The youngest, he's 6, can't be trusted to ever change clothes without close adult supervision. Neither will let me run a comb through his hair, and I have to run them down to clean breakfast off their faces. Looking presentable to the world is just not a priority for my kids.
    Our morning routine makes it so I look forward to going to work. But not all routines are unpleasant.
    Every night, the effort is made to sit at the table for dinner. This is the time we sit together as a family and share what's going on with our lives. Mostly it's about joking and laughing.
    After dinner is story time and lullaby time and time to give the stuffed bears a dream for the night. Then it's time to do the dishes.
    Washing dishes, if done alone, is one of the most boring chores on the face of the Earth. That's why the dishwasher was invented. With a partner you love, washing dishes the old-fashioned way becomes a very pleasant time. Communication is the most important part of a marriage, and most of our talking comes during the routine of cleaning the dishes.
    I usually wash, and Robin, my wife, does the drying. We both do the talking. She tells me about her work and the people she works with and funny stories about what happened that day. I tell her the same, except she works with much funnier people. We talk about our hopes and dreams, what we want to do over the weekend, what the kids are doing in school. We talk about football, our parents, winter and spring. We talk about everything.
    It's our daily appointment of checking in with each other, and it is invaluable. Most of our important decisions are made while washing dishes.
    It's our routine and one that keeps us grounded in our marriage.
    Now if we could just find a way to make the rest of the housework less tedious. I suppose we could do it naked, but what would the neighbors think?
    Contact Rory McClannahan at 823-7102 or online at editor@mvtelegraph.com.