Couch Dusting

When my children were younger, daily chores were given "clearly defining" names. "Bath UP" meant the 2nd floor bathroom, "Bath DOWN" referred to the basement. "Vacuum MAIN" meant just that - vacuum the main floor. "SPOVAC" was the acronym for "Sweep/Polish/Vacuum". "Squirter/Wiper" was my way of saying "spray Endust on the table and wipe it clean." I have to assume that in my quest to be cleverly simplistic, I did my children a great disservice. Here is today's phone conversation between myself and Janelle (age 16), who was helping her friend with a housecleaning job:

J: Hi, Mom. This is Janelle.
Me: Hi Jay!
J: You know how I'm helping Holly clean a house?
Me: Yes.
J: Well, I have a question. What does "dust" mean?
Me: What does dust mean?
J: The list that the lady wrote says to "dust the furniture". How do you do that?
Me: (Laughing) How do you dust the furniture? (I was sure she was kidding!)
J: Yeah. I don't know what she means.
Me: Well, you first spray endust, or whatever cleaner she uses, onto the table and then you wipe all of the dust off until it is clean. OR, you simply wipe the table with a dust rag and no cleaner, depending on what the woman wants.
J: OH! I get it! Thanks, Mom!
Me: You're welcome. Good luck!

I hung up the phone, laughing loudly enough that Ryan came to see what was so funny. After I shared the story of my phone conversation, he had an idea to call Janelle himself. Here is HIS conversation with her:

Ryan: Hi, Janelle!
J: Hi.
Ryan: Mom just made a new job chart.
J: She did?
Ryan: Yeah. On my list of things to do today, it says I have to dust. Do you know what that means?
J: (Chuckling) VERY FUNNY, RYAN! I was confused because I thought that "furniture" meant the couch and I didn't know how to dust it!

HMMmmm....OK...that makes perfect sense now. As soon as Janelle gets home, we're all going shopping for dust rags intended for upholstery.....