Cleaning the cars

I asked Charlie if he’d like to clean the inside of both cars for a tenner.
‘Err. No thanks,’ he replied.
I asked Max if he’s like to clean the inside of both cars with me for a fiver.
‘Err. Ok,’ he replied.
It was some days before the timing was right, but eventually Max declared he was,
‘Going to clean the cars now.’
He had just come back from Lords with Paul and Charlie. (Purely for the egg mayonnaise sandwiches) and was head to foot in ‘posh’ gear.
‘Ok lovely, best get changed though’.
‘Oooh, no! Mum!’
I gave it a minute; Max is never good at getting his head around things at speed. His irritation at me suggesting that he change was a perfect example of how he sees clearly that the idea is sound, but can’t be bothered and thinks if he just stalls, something will change. Plus his thought processes are just never immediate, he needs time, sometimes a great deal of it. In fairness to him, given time, he manages to make the leap from where he was, and get up to speed with the correct way of thinking and move on. He soon managed it now.

Five minutes later he arrived in the kitchen dressed to clean.
I decided I’d play a minor role in the cleaning and directed Max to the cleaning cupboard for the cloths, furniture polish and glass cleaner, and to the floor of the pantry for the Hoover. He enthusiastically collected all the items and headed for the front door. I felt my initial sense of trepidation float away, as I searched for the extension lead for the Hoover.

By the time I got outside Max had begun. He was furiously spraying and polishing a side mirror.
‘Inside the car Babe. Remember what I said?’
‘Oh, mum! - Headlights?’
‘Sweetheart just inside today, you need to clean all the mirrors and windows and the plastic bits, inside.’ I gave it a minute.
Max stormed off to get the car keys from inside the house, but emerged with a smile back on his lovely face. He clicked the remote, which he loves to do, and the car beeped open. He then opened the door, threw the keys inside a shut the door again.
‘Can you put the keys in your pocket Max ?’
‘No.’
‘It’s sensible to put the keys in your pocket because if you leave the keys inside the car, it can automatically lock them in.’
‘Oh.’
Max opened the door, reached for the keys and put them in his pocket - a small battle won. (Although I did get a filthy look.)
He really was doing a good job and attacking it with gusto. I thought I’d make a start with the Hoover; I was bound to get shouted at if Max thought I was slacking.
I bent down into the front of the car and was overwhelmed with furniture polish fumes. A great deal of spraying was going on. Max had emptied over half of the can onto the back leather seats and was furiously wiping with his cloth.
‘Excellent Max, not quite so much spray though eh?’
‘Oh, Mum!’
Now was the time for me to realise it was in my best interest to just keep quiet and let him get on with it, his way. And not a bad way too, he chattered to himself as he briskly went over all the seats and plastic and then moved on to the windows and glass. The rear-view mirror was dribbling glass cleaning fluid, but I bit my tongue and went to fetch a big black bag for the rubbish.

When I arrived back, Max was in the boot in fits of giggles.
‘Mum, I got locked in the boot!’
I let him out and he happily trotted around to the front where he finished off his polishing. For some ten minutes we beavered away side-by-side, Max barking out the odd command or complaining that I was in his way, but overall, a harmonious, joint effort. I really felt that Max had accomplished all I had asked of him when he shouted,
‘Mum, I’ve finished!’
‘Brilliant mate, lets lock up this car and move on to Dad’s.’
I thought he was going to throw a wobbly, but no, he looked over at Paul’s car and said,
‘Ok.’
I was impressed. What a little worker, such enthusiasm too. We both moved on to the next car after Max expertly locked my car up and replaced the keys in his pocket. As if by magic the keys to Paul’s car were produced from his other pocket and he unlocked it, raring to go.

Same drill as before and no real slacking either. I made sure I gave him lots of encouragement and kept hinting that we were over half way through the task and really nearly finished now. He plodded on with his polishing and spraying. The furniture can was completely empty by now, which was perhaps a good job, those fumes! Still, he soldiered on with just a very wet cloth and did a magnificent job.

We had it cracked in no time and Max was positively thrilled with himself. Paul was ordered down from his office to survey his sparkly clean car and gave the suitably required praise and appreciation.
I just handed over my fiver.