One of my husband's friends once described our house as "lived in" and I'm not sure if it was meant to be a compliment or not. However, my friends know that I am not the most meticulous housekeeper in the neighborhood.
Or at least I haven't been.
One facet of housewife/stay at home mom world is that we're expected to have a cleaner house. Right?
I spent all day yesterday sweeping the stairs and cleaning the carpet, laundry, sanitizing doorknobs and light switches (it's flu season, folks) and meticulously removing cat hair from our suede couch. About 8:30 last night, I started to wonder why. Why was I doing this? Did I need to work my rear off (literally since I've lost 3 lbs this week because I'm not sitting in a cubicle) because I'm guilty about not bringing home a paycheck?
I was messy in my single days. Now throw into the mix a baby girl with a diaper pail from the 6th layer of hell, 3 cats (one of whom has a hairy bottom that poo gets stuck to,) and a husband who never cleaned a bathroom before we got married. We have the makings of an episode of Hoarders.
Here's another story for you. When we both worked, we were in charge of cleaning our respective bathroom, and my husband's best friend stayed a weekend. His best friend used both bathrooms that weekend and said to my hubs, "The difference between your bathroom and Tori's is that I have to clean Tori's after I'm done and I have to clean yours before I sit down or touch anything." This was a man that said this.
I made a decision after working so hard last night. I'm not going to take it so hard. I'll do what I can, and I may win a few battles, but over the next few years I'm going to have to face up to the fact that I am going to lose the war. We want to have another baby fairly close to our daughter, so throw another kid in diapers into this and you have the makings of a full-on health department situation here. I'm resigned to keep my old carpet until the kool-aid spills and mud tracking days are over. (I hope my husband grows out of that stage soon.) I may as well look for a couch to purchase in 2021, because that's the next time anything new will grace our doorstep.
Just because I'm a stay at home mom now doesn't mean that I need to kill myself making sure there is no soap scum on the bathtub right? I certainly don't want to be like my mom who would shriek "I can't have anything nice" when something was spilled, tracked in, or when my sister's imaginary friend, Stacy Turnip, defiled something in the house. I want to enjoy my child/children and show her how to clean it up, talk to her about how to be more careful, and then move on with our lives.
So I made some goals to live by in the next few years.
#1- No visible cat poop on the floor.
#2- Use the air purifier and hope nobody develops asthma
#3- Stay on top of trash and dishes
Other than that, I am going to just try to avoid cockroaches and hope nobody gets impetigo.
If that doesn't work, I will keep in mind what my friend Neil once posted as his facebook status.
"Somebody will come to clean your house when you die. You may as well enjoy life."
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