Meal times can be the most hectic point of the day for a large family. It can be a challenge getting everyone to the table at the appointed time. Keeping everyone seated is another challenge. The sheer amount of food it requires to feed the clan can be overwhelming. And then clean up time�a big family makes a big mess.

It is of the utmost importance that everyone does their duty. If one person fails to do their job, all the other jobs are left in limbo. Therefore, not only must a person do their assigned job, they also need to cheerfully pick up the slack when someone is missing from the clean up crew.

Table chores should be done immediately after a meal. My current problem that we are working on is keeping the children from running off to their next activity instead of waiting for the other members of the family to finish eating. The children think they will come back to do their chores, but in reality someone else ends up doing them, usually their mother. So, we are working on staying at the table and having polite dinner conversation while waiting for the rest of the family to finish eating.

Washing the Dishes

Dishes should be done at every meal regardless if there are two or twenty. Dirty things laying around the kitchen promotes messiness and germ spreading. When you keep up with the dishes, other things in the house tend to stay kept up. Preparing the next meal is a joy if you are walking into a clean kitchen. If it is a dirty mess, you do not feel like making anything. Creativity dies on the vine. A dirty kitchen is depressing. Keep up with this one thing and it will make your family�s life much more pleasant.

 

Choose which side of the sink you will keep your dish rack. This will depend on the layout of your kitchen and whether you are right or left-handed. Put all of your dirty dishes on the opposite side of the sink from the dish rack. Clean the counter around your dish rack, you do not want to contaminate your clean dishes.

 

Scrape and rinse the dirty dishes and place in the order that you will wash them. Cleanest to dirtiest; glasses first, then serving dishes, then plates, then silverware, then cooking pots and pans.

 

Fill one sink with hot soapy water and the second sink with hot rinse water. The water should be as hot as you or the child can stand it. If you don�t have many dishes to do then do not waste water on filling the sinks, use a dish pan or a large mixing bowl. Running the water constantly for dish washing or rinsing is wasteful. Since we are talking about large families here and lots of dishes, you will probably be filling the sinks.

 

To wash you will need a dishcloth, a scraper, a bottlebrush for glasses, and a �scruffy�. Wash the dishes and put into the rinse water. Your dishwashing apprentice (this is the person you are training to wash dishes) pulls the dishes out of the rinse water and onto the drying rack. Then he will dry with a fresh �flour sack style� drying cloth. The advantage of these towels is that they do not leave lint on the dishes. They can be bought at Walmart very inexpensively. When the towel gets wet, the apprentice should get a fresh towel and lay the wet one over a rack to dry, and then it goes to the wash to keep the germs at bay. The apprentice puts away the dishes as he dries them. If the dishwashing sink gets too dirty, you will need to refill it with hot soapy water. If the rinse sink gets too soapy, you will need to refill it. This scenario will probably not happen unless you have 18 members in your family or it is a holiday meal and you have oodles of guests.

 

When you are done with the dishes, take your dishcloth and wipe the counters, the stove, and lastly the sink. At this point the apprentice should have everything put away. Wash the dish rack and drainer and place in the cupboard under the sink. Scrub the faucet and the crevices around the sink. Clean the drain and wipe the sink. Take the last dish-drying towel and dry the sink. Stand back with the apprentice and admire a job well done. This is true beauty, a necessary work done well. Take time to appreciate it and� pat each other on the back. The next time you walk into the kitchen to prepare the next meal, you will be so much more cheerful and ready to the necessary work with a good attitude.

 

I wrote out every little detail I could think of in the process. When you are actually doing it, you might have to think about it until you are practiced. This system is efficient and once you have it down, you will whiz through it and have a beautiful kitchen to show for it.

 

If your children are too little to help, let the dishes air dry. Lay a clean towel over the dish rack full of dishes for a more neat appearance in your kitchen.

 

If you have a dishwasher use it for all the small things. Large things such as mixing bowls, pots, and pans take up too much room, a lot of these things can be washed while you are preparing the meal. Wash those items in the sink at every meal. During the day, train your family to put their dirty dishes into the dishwasher. Of course this means it must be empty. Assign one of your children the task of emptying the dishwasher as soon as it is done running, whether this is one time a day or three. Assign it per meal, per day, per week, or as sometimes happens at our house, �if you complain you will keep the job until you can do it without complaining�.

 

I like to have scripture verses above my sink that I�m working on. I saw my mother-in-law do this and copied her. A close friend of my family told me once that she and her daughter had many precious dish washing sessions memorizing scripture posted above the sink. What a wonderful memory to have! While you are washing the dishes do not sigh. Do not have a pity party, and do not teach your children to act like that. They will learn from your example. If you work cheerfully and use the time well, you will teach them to enjoy work. This is beauty.

The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family

Large Family Logistics

Kitchen Management

There are several reasons for doing the table chores immediately, besides the germ factor. First of all, it just looks yucky to walk into a kitchen half way through the afternoon and there sit all the lunch dishes, table scraps, etc. What an ugly picture and it does ugly things to the attitude. Second, when the table is clean you can do things at the table. If it is still dirty, you might be tempted to not do that craft or game that you were intending to do with the children. Third, it is easier to clean when the food is not dried hard as a rock to the dishes and table. Fourth, and most importantly, what does this teach the children? Remember that we are teaching all the time, through our actions. Discipline yourself to do the work immediately and teach your children to do the work immediately.

 

This is your ultimate goal, training your children to work cheerfully and promptly. Proverbs has plenty to say about laziness. As a parent, it is your duty to train this out of your children. We are born with a sin nature, nobody taught us to be lazy. If we had poor examples that encouraged us in our sin nature, we cannot use it as an excuse. We are to press on towards the goal that Christ has called us to. We are being sanctified. We have been blessed with children to disciple and part of disciple-ing is training them to do their work as unto the Lord. It is a relentless parenting task.

 

Table Chores include the following, your household might vary a bit:

�  Set table

�  Fill water glasses

�  Scrape dishes

�  Carry to sink or dishwasher

�  Load dishwasher

�  Collect trash from table, put cloth napkins in laundry

�  Put food away

�  Wipe table, chairs, high chair

�  Sweep under table

�  Wash dishes

�  Dry dishes

�  Put clean dishes away, unload dishwasher

�  Wipe counters

 

Assign these chores to your children. If you have more children, there is more work but also more help to do the work. Set up your work to be done efficiently in your kitchen. If you find that two people are tripping over each other trying to do their job, maybe those two jobs need turned into one.

 

Use the timer and race it, try to get it all done in 10 minutes or less. The children quickly realize that the reward of doing work quickly is that it is done. They can then go outside, read, or play until the next thing on the schedule. Work every day at getting it done more quickly and cheerfully.

 

As soon as Table Chore time begins, the person assigned dishwasher goes to the sink and fills it with hot soapy water and begins. Everyone should follow suit and work quickly. You might want to reward them with a treat occasionally for being diligent or working cheerfully at their work. Always reward them verbally, encouraging them as you see improvement. When the kitchen and table are clean, have them admire their work and point out to them how pleasant it is to live in a clean home.

 

If your children are doing all the work what are you doing? You are helping the little ones, being the cheerleader, looking at what needs done for the next meal, putting little ones to a nap, switching laundry loads, you know, you�re doing the next thing. Cheerfully of course, as unto the Lord.

If you don�t have enough big kids yet to be of real help then you will have to do more of the work. Include your little ones in the work and cheerfully train them, soon they will be helping more and even doing it all.

Table Chores