It's hard to find good help

Carly loves to tag along with me while I do chores. She just has to be in the middle of whatever I am doing. So I let her help me "fold" towels, and she gets to sort the clean silverware back into the drawer. When I vacuum, she runs away and screams, and later takes full credit for the job well done. She knows what pillows and 'gwankets' go on her bed. And she knows how to put a dirty diaper in the diaper genie. If left in her room and told she can't come out until it is clean, she will put all of the toys into the toy box.

The one chore I haven't let her do is to help me clean the bathroom. Too many chemicals. But last week, I made the mistake of letting her watch me while I scrubbed the toilet and scoured the floor. It was an immediate attraction. She HAD to help me. But I quickly locked up all of the bushes, bleaches, and chemicals and told her that she was too little.

Unfortunately she didn't get the memo, because all week she has had an unusual fascination with the bathroom. She is always in there. She and I have previously had disagreements over bathroom etiquette. I don't want the whole roll of toilet paper in the toilet. She does. She wants all of the towels to be on the ground. I don't. She wants to run the water and play with all of her toys in the sink. I don't think that's a good idea.

Well, now she 'cleans' the bathroom. With handsoap. Today I walked in and she had squirted half of the soap into the toilet and was elbows deep swirling the water. When she saw me in the doorway, she proudly told me that she had cleaned the potty. Yesterday it was the mirror, and then the floor.

I just hope she continues to enjoy cleaning the bathroom so much. I'll make sure she reads this post when she's 13 and no longer sees the joy in scrubbing the toilet.