Where did I go wrong?

I have failed as a Mother. I have ruined my children! This is something that happened yesterday morning. Looking back I can laugh and thought you all might find it funny too. However, I have failed as a Mother. So this is the situation. The kids are getting ready for school and there are no clean cereal bowls in the cupboard. I have dinner bowls that we use for dishes with sauce. These bowls used to be our cereal bowls but the kids found them to hard to eat cereal out of so we no longer use them for cereal. These bowls are in the cupboard and all the bowls we use for cereal are either dirty in the dishwasher or dirty in the sink. As a disclaimer I have had sick kids so the dishes have piled up. I also forgot to start the dishwasher the night before so they are still dirty in the dish washer the next morning.

So Red comes and wakes me up and says Mom I need some help downstairs. Did I mention I had a sick kid and was up all night i.e. why I am still in bed at 7:00 a.m. in the morning. Anyway so I go downstairs and ask the girls what the problem is. They both say there aren't any clean bowls to eat breakfast in. Me, thinking I am the best mother ever, decided what a great teaching moment this might be. Feeling very proud of myself, I say to the girls, "Well what could you do to solve that problem." They both look dumbfounded at me, and say "I dunno." So I say "What about grab one out of the dishwasher." "But, Mom those bowls are dirty." So I say, "Well what's another solution," I get "I dunno" again. So I suggest "How about getting one of the other bowls in the cupboard we use for serving pasta." "But, Mom that isn't a cereal bowl." Heaven forbid! So I say "So what could you do." Lulu says "I dunno maybe use my hand to eat the cereal and pour a glass of milk to wash it down with." Red says "No I woke up Mom to wash me a bowl." I need to add she is so proud of herself at this point for giving the "Right Answer" she is Chester cat smiling at her sister. At this point I am laughing and say, "girls had it never occurred to you to wash a bowl yourself." They both say "No." They look at me with a blank stare and act as if I am speaking a foreign language. I then suggest they come to the sink and wash a bowl. Lulu then says "No that is to much work I will just eat a Pop Tart." Where did I go wrong?

Before and after - Red has a new hair cut