One of my fatal flaws: Cleaning up messes my kids make

Any parent with a lick of common sense knows what to do when a child leaves a dirty dish in the living room or their clothes on the floor.

You call them back and you make them clean it up.

Otherwise, how will they ever learn to be responsible? How will they become well-adjusted adults who can be relied on to clean up after themselves?

I absolutely get the logic here. I'm just not good at following through on it.

Quite often, someone in our house will make some sort of mess. I will walk through the room, observe the mess, and proceed to clean it up.

Later, a scene like this will take place:

TERRY (to child): Are you going to clean up the potato chip crumbs you spilled on the couch?

CHILD (after much grumbling and walking over to the couch): They're not there!

TERRY: What do you mean they're not there?

CHILD: The crumbs are gone.

TERRY (after a moment's thought and a scowl): SCOTT!!!! DID YOU CLEAN UP THE POTATO CHIP CRUMBS?!?

In most cases, yes, I did.

I shouldn't do this. I know it. It's just...I have no patience for messes, it takes effort to go and get the child and make them clean it up, and honestly, I'm going to do a better job of it anyway.

This is a terrible philosophy. I'm going to be 90 years old and my kids will call me saying, "Uh, Dad, I spilled juice all over the couch. Can you come over and clean it up?"

And I will. Let it be known, too, that that couch will be like new in 15 minutes.