POINT SYSTEM

After work I had stopped at a convenience store to pick up a half gallon of milk. I was putting it in the refrigerator when my husband Steven came into the kitchen.

“Doesn’t it smell good in here?” He asked as he pointed to the crock pot on the counter.

“It really does!” I said as I closed the refrigerator door. “You made sauce?”

“I did!” Steven was smiling as he lifted the lid to a sauce pan sitting on the stove. “I also made some chicken soup for dinner tonight.”

“Oh, my gosh. That’s awesome!” I dropped my keys in the basket on the counter and went over to get a glass out of the cabinet. “Thanks!”

“I also watered all your geraniums out on the deck.”

I looked out the window as I moved dirty dishes out of the way of the faucet so I could fill my glass with water. “Oh, thanks. I was planning on doing that after dinner.”

Our son Alex came into the kitchen. “Hey, how was your day?” he asked me.

“It was pretty busy.” I leaned against the counter and took a sip of water.

“Well, Dad was pretty busy in here.” Alex went over to the stove, lifted the lid and inhaled.

“I can see that.” I smiled. “Oh, did anyone get the clothes out of the dryer? I did a load of laundry before work.”

Steven and Alex both shook their heads no.

I put the glass on the counter. “No big deal.” I said as I headed to the laundry room. “I’ll just spritz a little water on the clothes and set it on low to get the wrinkles out.”

“Oh, did I tell you I cleaned the crumbs out of the toaster?” Steven called after me.

I stopped and came back. “And I made the bed before I left for work.” I reminded him. “I also took the garbage can out to the street before I left this morning.”

“I know. I brought it back in after the garbage truck picked it up.”

Alex looked back and forth to Steven and I. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“I think we’re in the middle of a ‘who-did-more-around-the-house’ point system.” I said.

Steven looked surprised. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, everything was fine up until you mentioned that you cleaned the crumbs out of the toaster.” I was standing in the doorway with my hands on my hips. “You do realize I do that all the time but I don’t actually mention it to get a thank you?”

Steven and Alex looked at one another both with confused looks on their faces.

“Okay. Let me try and explain this.” I came back into the kitchen and lifted the lid to the pan on the stove and pointed inside. “This is awesome. Thank you.” I walked over to the crock pot and lifted the lid and inhaled. “Again, awesome!” I walked over to the toaster and peeked inside. “Daily chore. No credit. It’s something we should all be doing after we use it.”

“But not everyone does.” Steven reminded me.

I walked over to the sink filled with dirty dishes. “After dinner I’ll be cleaning up this mess but you won’t be hearing me call out ‘I’m loading the dishwasher!’ or ‘I’m cleaning the sauce pan right now!’ or how about ‘I’m wiping down the counter-tops!’” I looked at both of them. “Daily chores.” I reminded them. “No one gets thank yous for that.”

Steven looked over at Alex and shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe we should start?”

Alex nodded and looked over at me. “Thanks for doing the dishes after dinner.” Then he looked over at Steven. “Thanks for cleaning the crumbs out of the toaster.” He smiled as he held up his pointer finger. “By the way, I have a load of clothes in the washer right now.”

“Really? Was it a load of towels?” I asked.

“No, it’s a load of my own clothes.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Sorry.” I shook my head some more. “If it only helps you it doesn’t fall into our thank you point system.”

Alex sighed. “Okay, I get it.”