You Know I Don't Think I Ask For Much

I just have a few simple rules that I'd like my kids to follow.

Turn the light off when you leave the room (we're not talking about if you're leaving the room and coming back 5 minutes later - we're talking about leaving the light on when you go to school or leaving it on all night long). Every morning I feel like a warden or something, walking my beat clicking off the lights my kids have left on....downstairs bathroom - check, bedrooms - check, family room - check, garage - check....it gets a little ridiculous.

Flush the toilet when you're done (and if you are a boy, lift the seat - please don't pee all over it and leave it for the next person to deal with). No one really wants to see your nasty business or clean up your pee. Isn't it enough that I have to clean the toilets once a week? Or that I have to clean up the pee on the floor, when you miss....Come on, help a mom out.

Close the garage door (our garage has two interior doors, one that enters the laundry room and one that enters our storage/pantry room), especially in the winter when the garage isn't insulated. It makes the entire downstairs freezing cold.

Clean out the lint trap on the dryer, before you burn our house down around us. It's not that hard to lift the little door and pull the thing out and clean it off. Every dang time one of the kids helps with the laundry (and yes, believe me I'm grateful that they do help with it) they don't empty the dryer trap. I swear that if we ever have a fire (and I pray we never do), the cause will be that dang dryer lint.

When you come inside and your shoes are wet from snow or rain (or God forbid muddy), please take your shoes off. In case you didn't know this, I don't want to spend my day mopping after you're mess all day long.

Pick up your backpacks and coats, the kitchen floor...table...and chairs is not a closet. When you multiply that times 5 (for each school kid), it makes the kitchen look like a mess. And it's usually when I'm trying to make dinner. It's kind of hard to concentrate while cooking and listening to school stories and looking at every piece of paper you stick in my face, while surrounded by coats, shoes and backpacks.


Seriously......Is that too much to ask? From a normal person, anyway?