Dishwasher or Paper Plates?

It looks like you got a lot of helpful ideas. My only thought reading is that sponges can harbor germs and need to be sanitized occasionally. I know you do it in the microwave, but I don't know how often or for how long. I personally hate the smell of sponges, so I don't use them. Finding out they harbor bacteria just settled it for me. I hope you find a good solution for you amidst all the advice. :)

I will often just put my boys sandwich on a paper towel for lunch. It's not fancy, but the boys don't care.

Amy-
For our family we had a dish drainer when the kids were young and washed the dihes as they were used. This taught the kids to take care of their own things and gave us more dishes as we needed them. I also found a picnic kit with plastic dishes. We used them each day. I assigned each kid a color of dish, then my husband and I each used one. This was fun for the kids. I also bought matching plastic cups at the dollar store. They could identify something that was theirs and that they used each day. This was fun. I also knew who needed to finish their meal. Hope you find something that works for you. Life is much more fun when things go smoothly. P.

The Boise area has a breakfast and lunch program free to everyone 18 and under from June 10th to July 18th Monday through Friday. Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 8:30am and lunch is served from 11am to noon. The sites are: Hilcrest, Hawthorne, Whitney, and Whittier Elementary Schools, and Borah High School. They've served in parks previously, but I don't see anything about that this year. If you have any questions call ###-###-####.
I just noticed you're from Jerome. I'm sure they have the program too (it's part of the No Child Left Behind Program). Just find out where they serve. It should come home from the kids' school.

I have a daycare in my home and I don't have a dishwasher! So after every meal or snack time, I just rinse the plates and utensils in hot water and put them back on the table for them to reuse. At the end of the day I wash them with soap but this way I avoid unwanted waste in landfills and I only have to do dishes once!

I only use the sink to wash dishes, and I only do them once a day, however there is only my 15 month old daughter and I but if the beakfast and lunch dishes wait until, the evening, it shouldn't be a big deal, also just a little bit of bleach in the water will sanitize the dishes without the water being fresh if you want to have them wash their dishes after every meal. A small amout of bleach in the water is also safe for the kids.

got one of those scrubbies that hold the soap in them. then you don't even need to fill the sink with the soapy water, and if they have already washed and rinsed their dish, why not just have them dry it and put it away at the same time instead of into the dishwasher.

perhaps you could give a thought to letting one of the kiddo's do dishes once during the day. With your 3 older children, all could be taught to take turns washing the breakfast and lunch dishes at lunch time and let them rotate. That way you have only one sink of soapy water vs. a load through the dishwasher. And then your dishwasher can be used for your dinner dishes... Just an idea..

Amy,
What I did when taking care of six children for some friends of mine was get some divided trays. They were inexpensive and the children loved eating off of them.
Something that my husband taught me is a soapy sponge.
You have running hot water on the trays, wipe the soapy sponge around it, rinse them and place them in a drying rack.
Occasionally they get to be washed in the dishwasher.
With Joy, C.

Dear A.,
I believe dish washing chores are a perfect exercise for your kids to show their respect and care about you by learning to be helpful, kind and participating in creating a beautiful place where you all live.
So grew up my brother and myself, so grew up my three kids: no dishwasher. We did it in turns, but ALL participating every time: as you have three of them full-capable of doing it, then add + the little one as a HAPPY-HELPER!

This is how it goes:
Kid No. 1 lays the table every time as if it is a holiday: nice and creative, plates, forks, spoons, and knives not thrown on the table put set up in a nice arrangement.

Kids No. 2 and 3 are responsible for clean-up: they take all the things back to the kitchen, and start washing.
As kid No. one was responsible for the TABLE, (s)he will wash the table with the sponge and a washcloth, + plus sweep the floor clean from all the crumbs.
Kid No. 2 is washing the dishes with the dish washing liquid,
thoroughly rinsing every dish from both sides
Kid No.3 is DRYING the dishes with a towel.
OR
kid no.2 is washing the dishes with the dish washing soap
and kid No.3 is rinsing the dishes well and clean from dish washing soap.
(Sorry I write so silly things, but these are EXACT moments where they will have problems in the beginning, so you will need to stress it well, while teaching them and then checking at times whether the work is done well).

if you decide this is a good idea for home-helping chores (what else are they busy with to show that they are part of the crew and really help to make family life great???)
then tell them that new rules come in and there is noway to escape so better let's do it with JOY.

You can offer little treats for a good job.
After dishes are washed, the sink, counter, and floor need to be clean and tidy like on the pirate ship after the big storm washed the deck and the sun dried the last spots!
This is the two dish-responsible kids' task.

So, every day, one kid gets an easier job of being responsible for the dining table (coffee table if it will happen by the TV), kind of "day-off" from dishes: fair, right?!

Alternate the list, let them switch places if they need so, but make sure all is FAIR (this is important for kids, you know this :) ).
There is NOWAY as to my opinion, to pay for the dishwasher use, if you have three happy helpers + one happy helpers' helper :)

Good luck!!! BE CREATIVE, INVENTIVE, MAKE IT FUN, AND TEACH THEM PATIENTLY HOW TO MAKE IT WORK WELL.

IMPORTANT NOTE: DO NOT GET UPSET AND ANGRY, NEVER.
THIS CAN NEVER BE A PUNISHMENT !!! THIS IS A HAPPY TIME !!!

If they did not do it well, say "sorry dear ones, this needs to be done over, that's the law", and keep being a happy mom.

For bigger ones, the treat may be something bigger that may happen at the end of the week (movie theater) or the other day, as they can relate.
However, the 6 years' old cannot put timing together well, so it's better to have some immediate treat: extra 15 minutes of video games (if you have such in the house).
The 2 years' old needs momentary treat: candy right after being a good helper, thus, they relate and figure out the benefits of caring about their chores.

Now, as it needs to be FAIR in comparison also,
I believe it won't hurt if
EVEY HELPER GETS ONE LITTLE CANDY AFTER THE WORK IS DONE,
GETS 15 MINUTES OF VIDEO GAME (OR WHATEVER THEY VALUE AND YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF),
AND ALL GO TO THE MOVIE THEARE (fishing, hiking eetc.) WITH HAPPY MOM AND DAD AT THE END OF THE WEEK,
PROVIDED THE WEEK WENT WITHOUT PROBLEMS on dish washing:
as you didn't pay for dishwasher,
you save some money on some field-trips...

In case if there were problems: not everything accomplished, or done inaccurately, then (minus video games' time or some other things what they like, adding it by points, depending how bad it was).

okay, I wrote you so lengthily just to show how it works in connection with other things, and because you say you have a "passion for positive parenting AND DISCIPLINE" = for this sentence, I applaud to you!!!!!

Keep it HAPPY at all times,
and you will have wonderful closest kindred :):):):)
surrounding you in your older age :) !!!
HappyBe, and have a great summer!

The only issue I can see with that is that one of the most important things with cleaning dishes is that the water be HOT. If you had a sink of water all day they would be washing dishes in cold soapy water or you would have to keep refilling the sink. I personally would go the paper plate route. You could also get one of those scrubbers that you put soap in and when they're done they quickly wash their dish with that and just rinse it off.

I can totally relate to this! Our house always gets invaded during the holidays and the dishes were really getting out of hand. Breakfast is hard to get around dishes, especially if its cereal and milk but for lunch and snacks I have some bamboo barbeque plate holders. We now use these with paper towels (not so much paper waste as paper plates). The paper towels prevents any mess on the bamboo and the bamboo holder doesn't require washing (99% of the time) The other thing we do is have picnic lunches or eat outside on outdoor funiture. I'd make up a pile of sandwiches, cut fruit and cookies etc on one or two large plates and the kids could help themselves and eat with their hands, no individual plates required. The drinking issue was a bit harder to overcome, every time they wanted a drink it seemed to be a new glass. I bought some inexpensive plastic wine glasses and put one of those charms on each one. Each child chose their glass and they had that the rest of the time they were here. They thought it was neat drinking out of 'adult' glasses. All they had to do was rinse and put on the bench until the next thirst. Then they all went in the dishwasher at the end of the day. Kids are very resilient, they don't need a crystal clean glass every time and as long as your kitchen doesn't get swarmed with flies, they will survive!

hey -- after serving an LDS mission where time was a premium, I began (45 years ago, wow, I'm old!) to just squirt a little soap on my sponge and wash the dishes a hundred miles an hour -- saved time, saved water and had a high concentration of soap on each dish to get it clean -- that's still how I do it today even with having had 11 kids -- I rinsed them all to get them wet and soften up the stuff on the dishes and I now use a scrubby sponge that has the scrubber side and the spnoge side -- fast, effective and less soap required -- and, yes, our dishwasher is our drying rack 90% of the time unless mom gets it going for something like thanksgiving before I get in the kitchen! hahaha!! (yeah, I'm the dad)

For quick dish washing at breakfast and lunch get one of those spongy, srubber things with a handle you can put soap in. Then you just scrub plate rinse and your done. All the kids could wash there own dish dry and put it away. Good luck

make kids take turns washing dishes by hand. cheaper

Your kids are old enough to do their own dishes --- with the exception of the 2 year old. During the day have the kids do old fashioned wash and dry dishes with their hands. At the end of the day run the dishwasher. Paper plates are wasteful. But sometimes we do paper as a treat. My dishwasher has water miser and light wash options. And there are even better energy efficient dishwashers out there. Frankly, I think you're worrying too much about little things. I'm all for conservation --- but we've got to be real, too.

Use the dishwasher. Unless its ancient it uses less than 10-15 gallons total (that's running your faucet full force for only 4 - 6 minutes). Most dishwashers need only a scrape, not a rinse on the dish, so you'll use a lot less water (heat and all) than any other method. use econo-dry or just cancel when you get to the dry cycle and you'll save even more on electricity. And, as all the others have said, your kids are more than old enough to be doing the dishes for you.

All great responses here! Especailly ones about them doing dishes!! I think that one is the best.
If you are worried about using the same soap for the day, put some water in the other side with a SMALL amount of bleach to rinse with. Change after one or two meals. If you don't want thier hands in the bleach water, then you will just have to remember that sometimes it is okay to have somewhat not perfect wash jobs....! Personally, I would have to change the water at least once....(I am wierd that way) But it isn't going to hurt to use it over a couple of times if everyone is healthy and not sick.
Good luck to you!!
LT