Size of turkey/number of guests

[Ginevra]

For my 48 years of life, which has included hosting many holiday dinners for a ton of people, nevertheless, I have managed to escape cooking a turkey 100% of the time. But it looks like this year, I will have to cook a turkey. We will have at least 22 adult guests and a handful of kids and babies. 

Google-fu tells me you should estimate 1 lb. per person, or 1.5 if you’re bent on having leftovers. That seems like an enormous amount of meat-per-person, since we have many side dishes, always do a clay pigeon shoot with oysters, and will have plentiful desserts. I was also strongly considering having a ham as well; personally, turkey doesn’t do a thing for me and I would happily not have one at all. Obviously, though, I’m going on majority expectations here, though. 

So. Hive says what size turkey? I think past holidays have definitely been a larger bird, in the 22-25lb range. AFAIK, nobody has ever sought out, say, a 30+ lb bird. Not even sure how easy that is to come by or if it fits in the average home oven. 

I guess there is also the two-smaller-birds thing, but I don’t particularly want to do that because it will occupy all my oven space. 

[mumto2]

Fwiw, Personally I would go with the turkey and the ham.  I don’t like the Turkey leftovers.  

That said I think the large amount of meat per person is so you can package take home leftovers for the guests.

[unsinkable]

It really isn't a pound of meat, though, because it is a meat "on the bone" rule of thumb.

So a 10 lb turkey doesn't yield 10 lbs of turkey.

With that many people, I would cook a coup!e turkeys and a small heat & eat ham. For turkey, I'd cook a whole turkey on Wed, get all the meat off, and put it in a roaster with broth. Then on T-day, I'd cook a turkey breast and reheat the turkey meat and heat the ham.

Size of turkeys would depend on how much ham you want.

HTH

[TravelingChris]

We never host that many.  At most, we have had seven, I believe.  But because we have small numbers, we still buy 12-14- 16 pound turkeys.  

 

[KrissiK]

It depends on amount of kids, too. In the past we have had 12 -14 adults and 16-18 kids ranging from young girls to teenage boys. I usually buy a 22-24 lb. turkey and have had a very modest amount of leftovers.

[unsinkable]

11 minutes ago, happysmileylady said:

Go with at least a 25lb turkey.

One of the reasons they say 1 to 1.5 pounds per person is because of all the stuff that you actually don't eat.  The whole carcass, all the frozen juices that cook out, etc etc.

We served 22 people for several years and even though not all those people ate turkey, we still did 22 to 25lbs.  

 

ETA: My family is pretty particular about Thanksgiving is for turkey, Christmas is for ham, NYD is for Corned Beef and Cabbage.  For my family, ham on Thanksgiving is just a really big no lol.  

LOL and my family would eat a "traditional" turkey dinner for T'day, Christmas, and Easter!

No ham! And I looooove ham. No beef roasts (some will eat steak). And definitely nothing like lamb. 

And I cannot even touch shellfish...

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, KrissiK said:

It depends on amount of kids, too. In the past we have had 12 -14 adults and 16-18 kids ranging from young girls to teenage boys. I usually buy a 22-24 lb. turkey and have had a very modest amount of leftovers.

I’m counting teens as adults because they are all boys and eat (at least) as much as adults. There are only around 7 “kids” now, and four are babies. 

But I do think it will have to be a turkey in the mid-twenties, although I do like @unsinkable‘s idea to pre-cook some turkey. maybe I would pre-cook a breast for additional breast meat, and then cook a full-sized turkey on the day. My feeling is that most people want to see  a whole bird, fresh out the oven, on the actual day. But a roasting pan of additional meat is a good idea. 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, unsinkable said:

LOL and my family would eat a "traditional" turkey dinner for T'day, Christmas, and Easter!

No ham! And I looooove ham. No beef roasts (some will eat steak). And definitely nothing like lamb. 

And I cannot even touch shellfish...

Yeah, my IL family pretty much repeats TG for Christmas dinner, except it’s common to have an additional meat and it has often been beef. 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

If you have a smoker, you could also do one as a smoked turkey. Or buy a fried turkey and then you just have to reheat it. 

You read my husband’s mind, because we were just discussing it and he said he can make a breast in his smoker plus the big bird in the oven. That seems like a good idea to me. 

[PeterPan]

I LOVE cooking 30 pound turkeys. I throw them in an electric roaster. You can buy one for like $20 at Walmart right now, highly recommend. There are some crazy recs that work well, like cranking it up to high, putting the bird in one hour, then turning the bird down till done. 

Yes, definitely do the ham as well!! You could even do 2 hams with that many people, one with the sugar and one without for the diabetics. You can do the ham in a crockpot and your oven will be free. 

Ina Garten has some lists for making ahead stuff for Thanksgiving. You could even do the turkey ahead if you want. I like to have my oven ready for the rolls, cuz I like them FRESH. 

Edited November 10, 2019 by PeterPan

[MaBelle]

I cheat every year and buy two already smoked turkeys.  This year I'm having 14 adults and 5 children.  Frees up my oven for casseroles.

 

[PeterPan]

1 minute ago, MaBelle said:

I cheat every year and buy two already smoked turkeys.  

Where do you buy them? 

[MaBelle]

4 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Where do you buy them? 

Our local meat processing place smokes a bunch every year.  They are a meat locker that butchers and dresses deer, cattle and chickens.  Around the holidays they smoke turkeys, chickens, briskets and other yummy stuff.  It's delicious and way better than anything I could every make.  I order their biggest two and they run about $50 each.  Well worth it, especially if you've ever eaten a turkey I cooked myself.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

For that many people, I'd cook as large a turkey as I can find (I've never seen one bigger than 25 lbs).  I cook it in the electric roaster (which I bought at Sam's Club for $40).  Having it on the counter makes it so much easier to handle, baste, etc.  It also frees up my oven for all the fixings.  (If you are going to cook one large bird, I highly recommend that you NOT use those disposable aluminum roasting pans that they sell in the grocery store.  They're not sturdy enough.)

 

[unsinkable]

1 hour ago, Quill said:

I’m counting teens as adults because they are all boys and eat (at least) as much as adults. There are only around 7 “kids” now, and four are babies. 

But I do think it will have to be a turkey in the mid-twenties, although I do like @unsinkable‘s idea to pre-cook some turkey. maybe I would pre-cook a breast for additional breast meat, and then cook a full-sized turkey on the day. My feeling is that most people want to see  a whole bird, fresh out the oven, on the actual day. But a roasting pan of additional meat is a good idea. 

That makes sense if your people like to see a whole turkey. We have never really presented it that way or served it or sliced it from the table.

I do the who!e turkey ahead bc IME, it takes longer to cook and for me to slice up than a breast does. The breast usually cooks quickly and I can let it rest, pop other stuff in the oven, and then slice it faster than I can a whole turkey. 

But if you can easily slice or if you have someone who can easily slice the turkey while you do other stuff, I can see how that'd work

[PeterPan]

23 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Ina Garten's stuffing is also epic. I  her. 

Ok, why have I not tried this? Or maybe I have and I forgot? Now I'm going to have to go look!! Things got so crazy a few years, I cut corners till our Thanksgiving was a snowflake. 

20 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

We have a place like this too!

You're killing me. I've got to google and try to find this. Sounds delish. Of course my dh bought himself a smoker, so maybe I should let him do it? It basically fills the house with smoke and is boring anyway, dried out on the outside. Not impressed. He's clearly not channeling his inner southern or whatever he needs to do, lol.

[PeterPan]

26 minutes ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

Ina Garten's stuffing is also epic. I  her. 

Oh dear, herb/apple or the sausage stuffing? I'm guessing you mean sausage?

[mumto2]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

I LOVE cooking 30 pound turkeys. I throw them in an electric roaster. You can buy one for like $20 at Walmart right now, highly recommend. There are some crazy recs that work well, like cranking it up to high, putting the bird in one hour, then turning the bird down till done. 

Yes, definitely do the ham as well!! You could even do 2 hams with that many people, one with the sugar and one without for the diabetics. You can do the ham in a crockpot and your oven will be free. 

Ina Garten has some lists for making ahead stuff for Thanksgiving. You could even do the turkey ahead if you want. I like to have my oven ready for the rolls, cuz I like them FRESH. 

I loved my electric roaster but didn’t keep it in the move.  Your post prompted  research (yes, $25 gets an Oster electric roaster at Walmart) that led to the discovery that Oster makes a combination roaster/ smoker.  https://www.oster.com/ovens-and-toasters/roaster-ovens/oster-16-quart-smoker-roaster-oven-red-ckstrosmk18/CKSTROSMK18.html  I may need one of those for Dh........

 

[Guest]

I think if I buy another appliance (i.e., electric roaster) my husband will sell me...

😄 We have done fried turkey before (dh has a deep frier), but the main thing I don’t like about that is no pan drippings for making gravy. I have to make the homemade noodles and gravy this year (dd has done it the past several years since my MIL cannot) and it is tremendously better if there are real pan drippings for the gravy. 

But @MaBelle did give me a good idea, because we have a meat processer nearby and I would like to get a fresh turkey, not frozen. So that might be a good option. I should probably look that up today so my order is in...

[PeterPan]

40 minutes ago, Quill said:

no pan drippings for making gravy.

Ina Garten has a make ahead gravy. 

[Lady Florida.]

I always heard and followed the recommendation of 1/2 lb. per person. I haven't heard 1 - 1/5 pounds, but @happysmileylady's post makes sense. My mom, later I, and now dss, always got/gets a bigger turkey than needed so there will be leftovers. So really, I don't know how closely we actually followed the 1/2 pound rule. 😄 I'd recommend the 25 pounder for you.

As for ham, my first thought is that it doesn't go with Thanksgiving but then I remembered growing up we always had and antipasto, eggplant parmigiana, and Italian meatballs in addition to the traditional turkey and trimmings. Who am I to say what you should or shouldn't put on the menu? lol If you offer everything the traditionalists want though, there's no reason you can't also have a small ham on the side. A ham isn't a lot of work and you shouldn't have to cook for that many people and still end up with a meat you won't really enjoy. If you want a ham and you're the main cook, go for it. Just be sure to have turkey for those who want it.

[unsinkable]

4 hours ago, Quill said:

For my 48 years of life, which has included hosting many holiday dinners for a ton of people, nevertheless, I have managed to escape cooking a turkey 100% of the time. But it looks like this year, I will have to cook a turkey. We will have at least 22 adult guests and a handful of kids and babies. 

Google-fu tells me you should estimate 1 lb. per person, or 1.5 if you’re bent on having leftovers. That seems like an enormous amount of meat-per-person, since we have many side dishes, always do a clay pigeon shoot with oysters, and will have plentiful desserts. I was also strongly considering having a ham as well; personally, turkey doesn’t do a thing for me and I would happily not have one at all. Obviously, though, I’m going on majority expectations here, though. 

So. Hive says what size turkey? I think past holidays have definitely been a larger bird, in the 22-25lb range. AFAIK, nobody has ever sought out, say, a 30+ lb bird. Not even sure how easy that is to come by or if it fits in the average home oven. 

I guess there is also the two-smaller-birds thing, but I don’t particularly want to do that because it will occupy all my oven space. 

Just to be c!ear...

There are a few numbers floating around. 

There is *what size turkey should I buy for X number of people?* The reason the answer is 1 lb per person is because a "turkey" people are asking about is usually a whole, bone-in turkey. A whole bone-in turkey yields about 40-50% edible meat...the percentage ranges depending on what/where you read. It also depends on how thorough you are in getting aaaaalllll the meat off the carcass.

The next question is...what is a serving size? That answer varies depending on situation, too. A dietary serving size of poultry...3-4 ounces. A catering/entertaining serving size? 6-8 oz.

The last question: How much, do I, Quill, need? that depends, too. IE you've considered serving another meat. You know how many sides you'll have. You'll have "historic" info to draw on...does your crew typically have a lot of leftover turkey? Or is someone picking scraps off the carcass in the kitchen? Then consider if you want leftovers. Or if you'd rather be done with it all by Thursday night.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, unsinkable said:

Just to be c!ear...

There are a few numbers floating around. 

There is *what size turkey should I buy for X number of people?* The reason the answer is 1 lb per person is because a "turkey" people are asking about is usually a whole, bone-in turkey. A whole bone-in turkey yields about 40-50% edible meat...the percentage ranges depending on what/where you read. It also depends on how thorough you are in getting aaaaalllll the meat off the carcass.

The next question is...what is a serving size? That answer varies depending on situation, too. A dietary serving size of poultry...3-4 ounces. A catering/entertaining serving size? 6-8 oz.

The last question: How much, do I, Quill, need? that depends, too. IE you've considered serving another meat. You know how many sides you'll have. You'll have "historic" info to draw on...does your crew typically have a lot of leftover turkey? Or is someone picking scraps off the carcass in the kitchen? Then consider if you want leftovers. Or if you'd rather be done with it all by Thursday night.

Yeah, I personally don’t care if there is any turkey leftover for myself; I will eat it if it’s there, but it’s low on my list of well-loved foods. What I really want lefties of is stuffing and noodles, but I’m not making the stuffing this year, so who knows if that will be leftover-worthy or not. Most non-blood relatives do not make stuffing the way I do/my mom did. I love my mom’s recipe but most people’s stuffing is pretty meh to me. 

It’s also seriously imperative that I have pumpkin pie and I am not above making one just for me to have after TG. I’ve definitely done that. 

I don’t think I said this upthread but (just if anyone wonders), everyone contributes. I will make the meats, noodles, gravy and possibly an appetizer or dessert, but every family is bringing contributions. Thank goodness! 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Ina Garten has a make ahead gravy. 

Yeah, I don’t think that would work for the way we do the gravy because we cook the noodles in it, so making it ahead would probably waste more time than it saves. 

But thank you for the suggestion. I do love Ina Garten; I think she’s fabulous! 

[ScoutTN]

6 hours ago, Æthelthryth the Texan said:

We should make a Thanksgiving sides thread......with recipes/links! 

And perhaps a whole thread just for PIE!

[ScoutTN]

8 hours ago, unsinkable said:

LOL and my family would eat a "traditional" turkey dinner for T'day, Christmas, and Easter!

No ham! And I looooove ham. No beef roasts (some will eat steak). And definitely nothing like lamb. 

And I cannot even touch shellfish...

We are stuck in a pattern here too. Beef tenderloin for Christmas, ham for New Year's and  lamb for Easter. I could do with a change, but not for Thanksgiving bc I love, love the turkey dinner.

[school17777]

My mil cooks the turkey every year.  She gets the biggest one she can find, plus a turkey breast.  She cooks it overnight and then debones it in the morning.  The meat stays warm in it’s juices in the electric roaster.

Edited November 11, 2019 by school17777

[beaners]

Add me to the electric roaster love. It is amazing that I can cook turkeys so fast from frozen. It is usually just immediate family at our home, so I am cooking all the things for a pretty large group. Having free oven space is important to me!

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, school17777 said:

My mil cooks the turkey every year.  She gets the biggest one she can find, plus a turkey breast.  She cooks it overnight and then debones it in the morning.  The meat stays warm in it’s juices in the electric roaster.

So if she's coking it overnight, what temp is she using? Is that kinda low and slow? Sounds delish!

[school17777]

37 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

So if she's coking it overnight, what temp is she using? Is that kinda low and slow? Sounds delish!

I don’t know!  I’ll ask though.  I think she puts it in the oven around midnight.

[PeterPan]

3 minutes ago, school17777 said:

I don’t know!  I’ll ask though.  I think she puts it in the oven around midnight.

And if she's planning on putting the meat back into the juice, is she putting anything on the bird or just popping it in?

I crank my birds up, so they're done in just a few hours. But I'll bet she's going low and slow. It sounds really good though, so I'll be curious to hear what temp she's using. Or I just like to eat turkey and think turkey. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

Thanks, everyone!  I just ordered a turkey roaster!  

[unsinkable]

36 minutes ago, perkybunch said:

Thanks, everyone!  I just ordered a turkey roaster!  

May I interest you in a Rice Cooker? LOL

That is a reference to a thread I started a few weeks ago. I love it but it feels like a "gateway appliance. "

There are so many appliances out there that I want that I have been resisting...

[PeterPan]

21 minutes ago, unsinkable said:

May I interest you in a Rice Cooker? LOL

She won't need a rice cooker if she gets an Instant Pot, but she'll still need a Bissell Crosswave to clean up the floor after the big meal... And if she buys it today from Kohls, it will be 30% off plus bonus bucks, meaning she really can't afford to wait. 

[Guest]

14 hours ago, beaners said:

Add me to the electric roaster love. It is amazing that I can cook turkeys so fast from frozen. It is usually just immediate family at our home, so I am cooking all the things for a pretty large group. Having free oven space is important to me!

Wait! Wait, wait, wait...are you saying it doesn’t have to be thawed if going in the electric roaster?  What about the bag of gibblets? 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, perkybunch said:

Thanks, everyone!  I just ordered a turkey roaster!  

The Hive has notoriously been bad for the budget! 

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

She won't need a rice cooker if she gets an Instant Pot, but she'll still need a Bissell Crosswave to clean up the floor after the big meal... And if she buys it today from Kohls, it will be 30% off plus bonus bucks, meaning she really can't afford to wait. 

Seriously, though, my basement is already like a small appliance graveyard...there’s the Ronco “set it and forget it,” the InstantPot I mostly use for only one purpose, my canner, the vacuum I don’t like but which has a good crevice tool...

[PeterPan]

5 minutes ago, Quill said:

Wait! Wait, wait, wait...are you saying it doesn’t have to be thawed if going in the electric roaster?  What about the bag of gibblets? 

As the bird thaws you'll be able to pull it out. Sometimes I thaw, sometimes I don't. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

3 hours ago, Quill said:

Seriously, though, my basement is already like a small appliance graveyard...there’s the Ronco “set it and forget it,” the InstantPot I mostly use for only one purpose, my canner, the vacuum I don’t like but which has a good crevice tool...

I already own a rice cooker.  I love it.  I have two crock pots.  Hubby has a pressure cooker.  I own a tortilla press, a belgian waffle maker, a fake george forman grill, a bread machine... I love me my kitchen appliances.  I don't have an Instant Pot.  I think I've got that covered with crock pots and  the pressure cooker.  Plus I have one of those kitchen counter ovens because my dd is scared of the big oven, and it's very handy anyway.

Turkey roaster coming soon.  Heart emoji

[beaners]

4 hours ago, Quill said:

Wait! Wait, wait, wait...are you saying it doesn’t have to be thawed if going in the electric roaster?  What about the bag of gibblets? 

It is like magic, right?! The manual that came with ours had instructions for adjusting the time and temperature if you cooked from frozen. You take the giblets and neck out when it is thawed enough. 

[unsinkable]

Quill, we need an after action report...

What'dja cook? Turkey? Ham? Hurkey? Tam? What size? How many?

[school17777]

On 11/29/2019 at 9:03 AM, unsinkable said:

Quill, we need an after action report...

What'dja cook? Turkey? Ham? Hurkey? Tam? What size? How many?

Bump!

[Guest]

On 11/29/2019 at 9:03 AM, unsinkable said:

Quill, we need an after action report...

What'dja cook? Turkey? Ham? Hurkey? Tam? What size? How many?

Sorry I didn’t see this earlier; this past week has been so busy. 

I had a full (frozen) turkey of 20.75lbs, a bone-in frozen breast of turkey that was 10lbs, and a bone-in spiral sliced ham that was almost 11 lbs. I thawed the turkeys first in the fridge but since that wasn’t quite doing the job, I used water baths over several hours, changing water and turning turkeys every 30 minutes. (Funny part: Half of my kitchen sink was occupied all day with the turkey and I had to use the little sink in the bar in our dining room for thawing the breast.) I thawed the ham the same way after the turkeys were thawed and back in the fridge. 

I cooked the turkey in one of my ovens and ham in the other; dh smoked the breast on his smoker. I cooked these early enough that I would have at least a two-hour cushion before people arrived. Very glad I did this because people wanted my ovens for keeping dishes warm. 

There were 26 people plus three high-chair babies and one little infant. The high-chair babies are one consideration I wish I had thought through a little beforehand, because their little strap-on travel high chairs used up three sturdy chairs I thought adults would sit in. One of my grown male guests came up with an extra folding chair somehow but I hope he was comfortable. I had not thought of that when I planned seating. My planned seating sat 28, so...I’m not sure where inventive grown nephew scored the additional chair but, hey, we’re problem-solvers around here, lol. 

I had a small debacle with my homemade noodles. I should have thawed them for several hours before dinnertime, but I (oh-so-wrongly) thought that would make them stick together as they thawed. Instead, I forgot how freezing works, lol, and they were a frozen, immovable brick of noodles at 6:00pm, when I intended to start them. So I had to do a tedious microwave defrost, which took up the twenty minutes I had planned to use for cooking them. Doh. (Dd is the resident noodle-maker but she’s in France. She would have known to thaw them.)

All the other contributed food made for a ton of food. We had a lot of ham left over and probably could have gone without, except I like ham much more than turkey and don’t mind leftover. I had made some desserts - peanut butter blossom cookies, cranberry swirl bread, pumpkin pie and whipped cream - but they were not needed. Ds took half of those back to college with him.

I think one problem with the dessert part is this: there’s no defined “start” time for eating the desserts. Some people (me included) do not wish to eat dessert directly after the meal; we want to hang around and chat and then go get desserts. But without a definite starting point for dessert, a bunch of people (including all the people with babies) left without eating dessert. This is one thing I would like to...control? I guess? Better in the future, but I don’t know really how once people have scattered. This is specific to having so many guests, I think. Were it six or eight people sitting at one table, it would be different. Suggestions welcome.

So - there you go. More than you ever wanted to know about big family holiday hosting! 

[EmseB]

Sounds awesome! I would just make an announcement after dinner that the dessert table is open for anyone who is ready but feel free to wait until later if you need your food to settle first.

[catz]

At my inlaws when we have large group, dessert is offered at the end of the meal and a couple will partake.  But about 60-90 minutes later someone will offer to serve dessert and asks around.  I think it is more easy to just skip dessert when you wait.  I rarely have dessert at those events because they're usually just a bunch of frozen/store bought stuff which does nothing for me.  And it would be harder to say no if that were the next course and we were all sitting around a table.

So in small thanksgiving turkey news, we only had 5 at home for thanksgiving this year.  Which was great.  We had a 10 lb turkey.  I am not a huge turkey fan, didn't want any leftovers really.  What I would say with a bird that small is it was just super hard to carve nicely.  There really wasn't a ton of meat on the thing.  Even with 5, I'd get a bigger turkey next time so it wasn't so much work carving it.  And we did have a little leftover once I pulled meat off the bones.  That was a ton of work though and I wouldn't have wanted to do that while I was trying to get the big meal on the table.  I made turkey noodle soup and bone broth.  

[Guest]

Oh, here’s a PS: I have a physical file labeled “parties”, where I jot down details similar to what I posted above. Next time I’m hosting something similar, I have a place to look back on what I served, what I bought, what worked, what should have been better planned, etc. 

I recommend. 

[Storygirl]

I have been acting like a crazy person and cooking one turkey after another all week, because my grocery has had fresh turkeys on sale for 10 cents a pound. We've been carving them up and putting the meat in the freezer for later use.

I've found that a 20 pound turkey is consistently producing about 14 cups of turkey meat. Maybe that little fact can help someone think about serving sizes for their particular family members. I, personally, can visualize how much turkey is in a cup of turkey more easily than thinking in ounces (most of the online portion suggestions are in ounces).

 

[Storygirl]

1 hour ago, happysmileylady said:

Why were you cooking them all at once?    If you have a deep freezer and they are in their originally packaging you can keep them frozen for like a million billion years.   I usually buy six turkeys each November and we roast or smoke one every other month.  

I don't have room for whole turkeys in my freezer. It's a smallish stand-up version, not a chest freezer. And I don't have room in my fridge to be defrosting turkeys all of the time. Plus, they are fresh turkeys with quick expiration dates, and I would not want to have them out of the freezer for more days, uncooked, when eventually it's time to thaw them. The reason they are on such a deep sale is that they are at the end of their safety dates; the store is going to have to throw them out.

When I debone them, I can fit twice as much in my freezer. I'm planning to use the meat in any recipe that calls for cooked chicken. I often have cooked, diced chicken in my freezer, and this will serve the same purpose, but be much cheaper.

Edited December 8, 2019 by Storygirl

[KungFuPanda]

One of these years I’m gonna get bold and tell the kids that they can have dessert when 

1. Their dishes are in the dishwasher

2. They’ve put away one batch of leftovers. 

3. They’ve washed one pot or serving dish. 

By the time any adults can face dessert the cleanup will be mostly done. 😬

I already make the kids take a family photo before I feed them. The kids in my family are especially food motivated. 🤣

[Guest]

3 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

One of these years I’m gonna get bold and tell the kids that they can have dessert when 

1. Their dishes are in the dishwasher

2. They’ve put away one batch of leftovers. 

3. They’ve washed one pot or serving dish. 

By the time any adults can face dessert the cleanup will be mostly done. 😬

I already make the kids take a family photo before I feed them. The kids in my family are especially food motivated. 🤣

I have to say, since I do not use paper plates for such things, that was an epic number of dishes! One of my SILs did jump right in and wash up a bunch, though, and filled the dishwasher. That was so considerate. Really a nice gesture!