You Shall Henceforth Be: Green
Growing up Mumsy was blessed with five very different, yet equally, well, unkempt, children. Early on she decided that color coding was the way to do things. My oldest sister was Yellow, my next sister was Blue (I believe), I was Green, our brother Red, and the Baby was, well, I can't remember. Mumsy will, though, and I'll update this when she corrects me.
The point of all this was: we had colors. Now, when I say colors I don't mean to say (or imply, really) that Mumsy dressed us in our colors (that wasn't the case, at least not exclusively), no, she was far more systematic. We each had our own Tupperware dishes: My plate, bowl, cup, spoon, fork, and even knife, were green. My oldest sister's were yellow. She didn't stop there, however. My toothbrush was green. My brother's red. This worked out really well: never did we wonder whose cup was whose, mine was the green one.
Mumsy's organizational skills didn't stop there, however. We also had 'days.' On your day there were many privileges, there were also chores. Mumsy put just the right amount of effort into calculating our 'days.' The oldest was Monday, the next Tuesday, predictably I followed with Wednesday, my brother got Thursday, and Midge, as I'm sure you've calculated by now, was Friday. Included in the privileges were: who got to ride in the front seat (that ended virtually all arguments, until, of course, Saturday), we also got to, well, I can't remember any other privileges. Chores included: dishes. My mother had a very modern dishwasher, she called it "Whose 'day' is it?". On numerous occasions (mid our whining that we always had to do the dishes) Mumsy could be counted on to exclaim: 'I've done my fair share of dishes! That's why I had kids, so I never had to do them again!' No one said her logic was infallible. All of that said, Wednesday was the best day to have, especially once my siblings and I started turning 12. Wednesday night was youth group night, and everyone 12-18 was encouraged to attend. Well before I was 12 I was riding along with Mumsy or Pops to take the older kids to 'mutual' (as it was called). Hey, my mommy didn't raise no fool (well, she did, but I'm not it)!
In case you're curious: my toothbrush is still green. My dishes, however, aren't.
The point of all this was: we had colors. Now, when I say colors I don't mean to say (or imply, really) that Mumsy dressed us in our colors (that wasn't the case, at least not exclusively), no, she was far more systematic. We each had our own Tupperware dishes: My plate, bowl, cup, spoon, fork, and even knife, were green. My oldest sister's were yellow. She didn't stop there, however. My toothbrush was green. My brother's red. This worked out really well: never did we wonder whose cup was whose, mine was the green one.
Mumsy's organizational skills didn't stop there, however. We also had 'days.' On your day there were many privileges, there were also chores. Mumsy put just the right amount of effort into calculating our 'days.' The oldest was Monday, the next Tuesday, predictably I followed with Wednesday, my brother got Thursday, and Midge, as I'm sure you've calculated by now, was Friday. Included in the privileges were: who got to ride in the front seat (that ended virtually all arguments, until, of course, Saturday), we also got to, well, I can't remember any other privileges. Chores included: dishes. My mother had a very modern dishwasher, she called it "Whose 'day' is it?". On numerous occasions (mid our whining that we always had to do the dishes) Mumsy could be counted on to exclaim: 'I've done my fair share of dishes! That's why I had kids, so I never had to do them again!' No one said her logic was infallible. All of that said, Wednesday was the best day to have, especially once my siblings and I started turning 12. Wednesday night was youth group night, and everyone 12-18 was encouraged to attend. Well before I was 12 I was riding along with Mumsy or Pops to take the older kids to 'mutual' (as it was called). Hey, my mommy didn't raise no fool (well, she did, but I'm not it)!
In case you're curious: my toothbrush is still green. My dishes, however, aren't.
posted by granola girl at 10:13 pm
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