Sitting here with my trusty collie beside me while the
floors dry, I wonder what is the
purpose? What is the deal with all this
cleaning? Scrubbing floors, dusting a second time in 2 weeks, vacuuming
the corners and moving furniture to get
every last dust bunny that dare escape my scrutiny.
It’s graduation time in my house. We will celebrate my youngest son’s high
school accomplishments this weekend.
Family and friends will be here roasting this humble child who is the
apple of his mother’s eye. (don’t tell
my other 4 children) I have been
preparing my home for this day for the past 2 months. My psyche may never be prepared.
Most of the celebrating will take place outside, with much
wondering in and out of the ever slamming screen door. I had to question my motives while scrubbing
and steaming the floors. Is this really
necessary?
Consider this:
Everything outside is going to be walked in and out several hundred
times. ( Especially if the grandchildren make an appearance) All invitees are family and close friends:
they know my laid back style and sense of humor. I’m not going to serve them from dirty plates
or moldy food. All bets are off on the
slightly over- doneness (is that really a word) of said food. President Obama isn’t coming so I don’t have
to really clean that much; besides he is afraid of my Mother and respectfully
declined the invitation. It would be so
cool though, right?
I’m not a slob. I vacuum
weekly, wash dishes every night out of necessity mostly and the bathroom gets
cleaned weekly and again when I start raising my voice at the children. I’m not OCD like some in my family who shall
remain nameless nor am I completely out of control like others who again shall
remain nameless. My home is controlled chaos.
As a single woman who works 40 hours a week, has a social
life, keeps up with her children and believes that 8 hours of sleep makes you
BRILLIANT: sometimes cleaning is the
last thing needing attention. Life is
too important to worry about a dust bunny in a corner or the miniature
Christmas tree that hasn’t made it to storage yet. Lately
I have found myself working overtime to get things done, clean this place up.
Why? Plain and simple
answer: Stress. My 4th child
is graduating. 4 out of 5: Sounds like a commercial for a medical
product. “4 out of 5 Moms recommend cleaning to get over the stress of your child
graduating.” No it just gives you too
much time to think about the years past. Cleaning up after an illness, a toy box explosion involving several cans of play-dough and other
unidentifiable substances. There was the fingernail polish on the white rug
experiment when he was 3 which had closely followed the red sharpie target drawing
on his bedroom wall. At the time I thought
he was going to be an artist. Not
happening. Washing the child and his
clothing when he and his brother rolled in every mud puddle they could find in
a ten mile radius; some of those clothes had to be thrown out due to extreme
mud infestation. There is only so much
cleaning one mother and a machine can accomplish.
Cleaning does relieve some of the stress. It gives you the quiet time you need. Everyone disappears when you start the
serious cleaning. You can scrub away
some of the anxiety, think through some of the unanswered questions, and share a few smiles and laughs with
yourself over those times past.
The future is dirty.
There will be other messes that require attention: some seeming unnecessary,
some just for the sake of cleaning. So
here’s to the future: may yours be
filled with memories that last a lifetime.
Peace.
NEPB
