Cleaning while the children are small is like...

”Cleaning while the children are small is like showing snow while it’s still snowing”. These words of wisdom can be found on a sign in my brother and his wife’s house. How very true it is too!  I would however like to extend the age group to include tweenies as well. Not that my daughters keep pulling out stuff and make a big mess wherever they sit, but because I’m constantly interrupted when I’m cleaning the house. Normally, meaning when it’s not summer holiday and the girls are in school, I clean the entire house three times per week and the kitchen every day. It’s done in some hours and I’m killing two birds in one stone; the house is nice, clean and smells good and I’ve worked up a pulse, gotten a good work-out and I reward myself with a long, nice shower if it’s a rainy day. Why only if it’s a rainy day you might wonder? Well, in Australia you need to keep down the water consumption a bit. We have a water collection tank and solar panels, so our shower and bathtub water is primarly rainwater, heated by the sun. 

To get back to the topic: Instead of cleaning the house in a few hours, the cleaning process is a never-ending activity when the girls are home. I’m constantly asked to assist them as a hairstylist, fashion consultant, dresser, chef, waitress, peacemaker and judge (”who do you think is the hottest guy in One Direction, Mom? You have to pick one.”). The girls have their daily chores: make the bed, put dirty laundry in the laundry basket and keep their rooms nice and tidy. By the time it’s two o’clock in the afternoon, I usually give up, what hasn’t been done has to wait for the next day. I pack a lunchbox, get some towels, a picnic blanket, an umbrella and we head down to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. The next day I pick up where I left off and continue my close relationship with the vacuum cleaner and the mop. 

The school resumes in two weeks and as much as I enjoy spending time with my daughters, I also look forward to getting back to our daily routines when I do all the household work, have some ”me-time”, pick up the girls in school before we head down to the beach for a couple of hours. As for my much awaited ”me-time”, I know just what to do: read. I walked in on a big book sale and got myself a big pile of classics. Only twelve days left....