Dishes and Freedom

How often do you run your dishwasher??  Ours is completely full every other day and I just couldn't figure out why we have to run it so much!!  But then I got to thinking about it.... 

Rylee uses 3-5 cups per day.  She likes that she can get her own water now and she often does so when I'm not paying any attention...and of course she has to get a new cup every time (never mind that she already has 1 or 2 half full on the counter..."it's not fresh", she says). 

Wyatt uses 2-3 cups per day, depending on if we can find the one(s) already in use or not.  I know many parents can relate to finding cups full of spoiled milk in the most random places...I'm getting good at putting my "1 year old eyes" on and looking in some very unusual places, but he still has some hiding places I haven't discovered yet. 

Both kids use 5-8 bowls each for snacks all day long.  Most times, they get their own snack and I'm nowhere around to make sure they use bowls they already have out.  I have to admit though, I find it incredibly adorable when Wyatt gets a box of crackers out of the pantry by himself, takes it over to the cupboard with their bowls, takes a bowl out and sits down on the floor trying to pour his own snack.  It is the one thing that really makes him seem like a little person to me and it melts my heart every time....I just can't interrupt the cuteness to have him use a bowl that's already "dirty". 

And finally, for fun, Wyatt takes out all of my plastic mixing bowls and leftover containers and drags them around the house.  Whenever I find one I put it into the dishwasher, because 1) kids are germy and 2) there is no telling where it has been....too many have been found in the garbage. 

I hear you thinking it....I am too...."Who is running this show???"  Kids getting their own snacks, dragging dishes all over the place....  Well, here's the thing.  I use a lot of breaths each day yelling at the kids  to "get down", "stay out of there", "close that door", "don't touch that", "stop it", etc.  To keep myself sane and the kids from thinking I'm the wicked witch of Southern Iowa, I have to pick my battles and choose some things to just let go.  While I really dislike emptying the dishwasher every other day, it is worth it to me to let the kids have some freedoms and independence in their own house.  No one is going to get hurt dirtying dishes, so it's the least of my worries really. 

We do spend a lot of time in our house, and thus many meals, snacks, etc and it does make sense that we would need to run the dishwasher often, but dang! it just feels like all I do is put dishes away.  Oh well...I am thankful to have plenty of food to cause so many dirty dishes and thankful to have dishes to eat our food on!