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Why is it compulsory that the youngest child must do the dishes? This is one question I kept asking myself while growing up though at a point I came to a conclusion that the older ones are also scared of doing dishes as well.
Hmmm!!! Imagine having 7 siblings and after eating you as the youngest is expected to wash up all dirty dish in the sink including mummy, daddy, uncles and aunties plates, just imagine the pile up; and you are expected to clean and tidy the kitchen as well.
I remember crying almost every afternoon when am being reminded that I have not done my after lunch dishes which is usually much because our daily lunch is usually eba and soup where each person uses 2 plates 1 for eba and the other plate for soup.
And that is the exact time my playmates are all outside playing either Tempe or suwe.
I also remember rushing my food when I hear the sound of my playmates voices; all I want to do is join them forgetting I have chores to do after eating; And oh! my Hitler elder sister will always time me as soon as she realize am so engrossed in the fun, that’s when she would scream my name reminding me of the unwashed dishes and immediately my heart will skip not only is she reminding me she also wants my mum to hear that I have not done the dishes and then my mum would now send for me asking me to go straight to the kitchen and tidy it up… oh! How I hate those particular moment in my life.
Oh! How I remember when I use whitlow as my excuse for escaping washing dishes, it got to a point when I stop going to my uncle who normally treats whitlow as I got to know the ingredients he uses and how to mix them together. I even became a whitlow doctor by wrapping the necessary mixture on my hands and when everyone in the house see’s my hand they will delegate the plate washing to another person and then they will start monitoring me to see when I will fault and definitely am always alert and if I am to play outside I go for suwe while I form hanging my hand so that I don’t hurt the hands. Whenever I notice the present of my parent I start fanning pains and immediately start crying and with this trick automatically I would be awarded bed rest by my dad for the next 2 days which annoys my siblings as they can’t do anything about it without any proof that my finger isn’t paining me.
The irony of it all is that it wouldn’t take you less than 20 minutes to wash up the dishes but at that moment you feel as if it’s going to take you forever to finish it.
Sometimes washing of dishes in my house where always allocated on weekly bases that’s when my mum notice that my siblings will purposely use plate even clean ones and dump in the sink. Then weekly bases start depending on how many of my siblings are around if it’s 4 of us it means for the next 3 weeks I won’t be washing dishes yippee!!! That until someone defaults and the routine will have to change to 1 person doing the dishes after breakfast and another for lunch and then dinner or 2 days intervals style. Those where the days you imagine a fairy god mother buying a dish washer in the house and hoping that one day when you close from school you would see your imaginary dish washer in the kitchen waiting for you to load all dirty dishes into them.
At one point I would bribe my cousins or siblings with either a piece of meat or half portion of my food just for him or her to take my dish washing turn. Then if I am to give him half of my meat he would wash only the plates but if I gave him a full piece he would wash the plates, pots and clean the kitchen.
Oh! How I distaste that moment when you are almost done with the dishes and someone is coming towards you with a tray of dirty dishes and pots and you can’t do much about it except murmur or cry and wish for something bad happens to that person as at that point in time.
I had an aunt who lived with us back in the days, all she knows how to do in the kitchen is to pile up plates and pots and when she sees someone washing plates in the kitchen that’s when she would notice plates and pots that were not properly washed. And whenever she cooks OMG! She uses up all the pots, bowls and plates to cook I never liked her and I always dread her coming to visit us.
Recently I saw myself doing the same thing to my little cousin when I saw her expression I remembered how I use to feel those days. Just to put a little smile on her face and to avoid her wishing me all I had wished for my aunt those days; I decided to help her do the dishes whenever I can. I do have a dish washer at my house but I have never used it due to high electricity bill, since my hands have been doing the work all these while I guess I would stick to the good old days style.
2 comments:
This is so reminiscent of my childhood..oh where has the time gone? Like you brenda,mega large family too. I could bear the dishes, I loathed the mighty pots with a vengeance! Our pots were so big, you could boil a five year old inside.
Whitlow? sly gal...real sly.
=))º°˚˚˚°ºнaĦaнaº°˚˚˚°º=)) gal I didn't have a choice dis gal gat to do what she gat to do to avoid those big pots and plenty dirty dishes... I couldn't bear both; I didn't hav an option except the occassional bribe and whitlow when eva I cud pull it... Good old days
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