Adventures in Parenting: Nutella Edition

Saturday night Greg and I once again learned some new things we may never have known had we not had offspring. One is that it is decidedly harder to clean up a giant sized container of Nutella spread all over the kitchen than it is to smear it there. The former is a task for a dedicated adult with deep cleaning experience, while the latter - well, any child can do it. Provided his parents think he is in bed asleep.

After tucking the boys in bed, Greg and I were watching a movie in our room. All was quiet and peaceful, until I heard water turn on in the kitchen. I went in to investigate and Kirby told me, "We were just cleaning up."

I saw chocolate around his mouth and thought, "Great. They've been into some chocolate chips in the pantry." Then I took in the whole scene and called for back up. Greg responded, as he was on his way in, "Is it hot chocolate again?" If only...

I'll say one thing for my boys: they are very thorough. There was not an inch of the handles on the fridge and freezer they had missed, nor on the dishwasher control panel. Sam summed it up for me quite nicely: "It's ah-mazing!"

They also proved they were creative and artistic. Beautiful Nutella handprints arranged in nice little rows. Who would have ever thought of that medium? Seriously, Nutella. Who knew? Thorough, creative and artistic, these are qualities we should encourage in our children, right? Ooh, and cooperation, dedication to a task... This mural must be an awesome visual attestation of our parenting skills.



When Greg came in, I was washing Kirby's hands while Sam was licking the fridge. Yes, you read that right. I wonder if Sam will appreciate his new nickname of "Fridge Licker" when he is older. (It did smell good. So thoughtful of them to make a mess that let me enjoy the lingering scent of chocolate while I cleaned.)

Not sure about what role the potatoes played, but they were also covered in Nutella, as was our butter dish. Also some plastic garbage bags, which we found hung up on clothespins on our art wall in the laundry room.

Greg took a picture and sent it to his sister. She showed it to her daughter (age six) who asked, "Is that funny? Or bad?" The answer is Yes and Yes. I have to say that a sense of humor goes a long way. Greg and I couldn't help but laugh as we cleaned it up together. Perhaps that may be evidence of our poor parenting, LAUGHING at such a naughty deed. We didn't laugh in front of the kids, though, for the record. Even though Kirby kept coming in and reassuring us with his commentary, such as:

"Me & my brother, we decided not to do it again."

And "I bet we're going to have a new rule tomorrow: No kids in the kitchen. But we can still help you with the laundry, right?"

And this was perhaps to ease our pain and put the present situation in perspective: "Remember the time I made an even BIGGER mess? When I went in my room and climbed up on my shelves and then DUMP! DUMP! DUMP! DUMP!" There is no forgetting that mess.

A word of advice: If it is quiet, go see what they are doing. They are never just "playing quietly" or miraculously going to bed without a fuss. They are ALWAYS up to something! Perhaps making a mess that they will describe as "The Biggest Mess I Ever Made! It even made me TIRED!" That was a mess to remember.

The Nutella Incident of 2012, perhaps not so noteworthy, but as Greg said in the midst of our cleaning, "At least now you'll have something to blog about."

Yes, there is Joy in the Journey of parenting, even late at night cleaning up a surprise mess. Still, I would not recommend Nutella for use as children's finger paint. At least not indoors.