11 December 2008

Let Them Eat Nectarines

I'm on strike. I'm not making dinner for my family until further notice.

I'm a little tired of wasting my time and my grocery budget planning, shopping, preparing, cooking and serving, only to scrape the lot off into the bin.

So I told my family yesterday that I was not going to be organising any dinners for them until I was ready.

The children did as they usually do, swiping fruit from the fruit bowl and begging and pleading for many cups of milk. I said, "Whatever, go for it."

Then they went to the freezer and found some half-finished frozen yoghurt. Normally I'd step in quickly and stop that sort of nonsense, but yesterday, I said, "Whatever, go for it."

They found a giant slice of watermelon in the fridge and took it to the table, along with a sharp knife. The Good Mother in me was on strike, and the Other Mother said, "Whatever, go for it."

Then Mr de Elba phoned. I told him what I was doing (nothing) and what the children were eating (everything). He thought it was all pretty amusing. Then he hatched a plan to come home via the grocery shop and save the day by making nachos. He asked me to stop the children eating stuff, but I wasn't too happy to include that in my description of Mummy On Strike.

Overall, I was pretty happy with this plan because by that stage, I was getting a little hungry myself.

At that time of day, a small trip for groceries can take a very long time. It was about Sonny's bedtime when Mr de E came home and started cooking. But it didn't bother me, because I was on strike. Mr de E made the nachos and we all sat down to eat long past both children's bedtimes. Delicious.

Then Mr de E headed off to a meeting and I bathed the children, dressed the children, cleaned the children's teeth and put the children into bed (one of whom had great trouble staying in bed.)
I fed Puppity Doggity, and then came upstairs and attacked THIS:

Some STRIKE!

11 comments:

CynthiaK said...

A mother's work is never done!!

Swift Jan said...

I had been wondering how the strike went!! Some strike indeed! At least you got yummy nachos for tea! I think I will make them tonight :)

Nauntie Lush said...

Saving the day would have been much better tolerated had he um, brought home take out in DISPOSABLE containers and bathed the children himself.

Men, can't live with them, can't get them to "help" any better than they do!

♥ Boomer ♥ said...

Whatever, go for it!

I love that! I always heard that kids will eat what their bodies need. Mother told the story of when she was 4 and eating dirt. Her mama took her to the doctor and the doctor said, "She needs iron."

Hmmmm....much prefer the fruit and frozen yogurt!

Sassy Britches said...

Oh, poo. And it was all going so well!

Hippomanic Jen said...

I can't say anything, because it would only be bragging about the fact that my Beloved has been known to clean up after me on a fairly regular basis. I tell ya, he is one of a kind.

Dee said...

ah yes, the dreaded washing up....

gee I wish i could go on strike

Givinya De Elba said...

I wish I could go on a REAL strike.

Alison said...

I wish I could go on a real strike too! There is always something for me to clean up.

Jen said...

Well, at least you didn't have to cook it. Half the battle won, right!?!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

I've gone on strike before, and the kids actually seem to prefer it, darn their little hides.

The other night I tried a different trick - I prepared dinner, but kept telling the kids they COULDN'T eat ANY of it, since it was all for my imaginary camel.

They were pretty upset to be upstaged by my camel, and "stole" the camel's food at the first opportunity.