Mum goes on housework strike to teach kids a lesson
Canadian mum Jessica Stilwell lets kitchen become a Jenga of dirty dishes to prove a point – and her blog goes viral
Ah, the days when you wonder if you were to just leave your children’s dirty dishes on the side would they sit for all eternity, or would some magic fairy come along and whisk them away? Or, heaven forbid, would your little cherubs realise that they were still there and put them away themselves? Well, Jessica Stilwell from Canada, decided to find out.
Without telling her twin daughters Olivia and Peyton, 12, and their sister Quinn, 10, about her brilliant plan, Jessica went undercover in her own home. Jessica and her husband Dylan simply tidied up after themselves (secretly) and left everything their daughters abandoned around the house exactly where it was. The exasperated mum began her blog, “This working mom has officially gone on STRIKE within the home!!! Nothing said, no warning… updates to follow.”
Jessica then entered daily updates, detailing the shocked reactions of her children and growing mess in her once prized home. She joked, “I now have a Maple Syrup can next to my Soya Sauce centerpiece. That’s ok. I like it. I have been meaning to incorporate more of an eclectic décor theme anyway. Sort of like Asian meets Canadian meets garbage dump. I think it may catch on.”
Continuing her detailed documentary of her changing home, Jessica added, “There are oven mitts on my couch?? Someone will be at the ready if the remote control suddenly becomes hot to the touch.” The bemused mum added, “I put my Iphone on the counter today… I had to call it to find it.”
Eventually the children started to realise something was up. Jessica joked, “’Doggy bags’ for lunch was not such a big hit. Quinn actually checked if there was real dog crap in the bag… for those children in Junior High, the prospective of eating out of poo bags was far too embarrassing.’ By day five Olivia announced, “You STILL haven’t cleaned the kitchen, this is disgusting!!”
As the lightbulbs went on and Jessica’s hubby Dylan rejoiced in the fact that they finally realised why they’d been packed off to school with dog poo bags for lunch bags, Olivia announced that this experiment was “the dumbest thing ever!! Kids have parents for a reason, to clean up after them”.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Jessica then describes how she enjoyed watching her children “dry heaving” as they huddled over the sink trying to clean milk from a cup that they could now hold upside down, and rejoiced as she drank a coffee they’d made her while they fought through the Jenga-esque stack of plates.
Jessica proudly told her readers, “All three of them apologised and did thank me for what I do. I must admit I imagined this moment a week ago very differently.” She added, “I pictured we would all hug and cry while the ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’ played as background music. They would crown me the best mother in the world as they all cheered me on and applauded my brilliance. In reality, the theme song in my head was from ‘Chariots of Fire’ as they all yelled and fought around me. I closed my eyes and imagined I had just climbed Mount Everest.”
Bravo, Jessica, bravo!
So, would you go on a housework strike? Let us know below…
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