So I survived a birthday slumber party with several eight and nine year old little girls over this past weekend. Let me just say first off, I quit smoking in January and have rarely craved a shmoke. I dearly wanted one at 6AM this morning as they woke me up screaming and running through the house.
I knew that the girls would be in and out, in and out all day/night long so I didn’t make the house spotless before they came over. Yeah, it was clean. But, it coulda been cleaner, and I wasn’t too afraid knowing that my floors weren’t mopped, and the child’s room wasn’t spotless, and so on. I knew that once they left, I’d have the opportunity to fix and clean everything.
And I didn’t set any rules. No, I didn’t want to throw a bunch of rules at the girls, and expect them to actually listen. I didn’t want to sound like an old, biddy so I let them do what they wanted. Oh my freaking gosh . . . a mad house, I was in a freaking mad house.
I was literally going, OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG .. ! Oh – My – FREAKING – Gosh! Look at my floor! Look at my couch! Look at my kitchen! Oh my poor poor kitchen!!! Don’t worry cabinets, they won’t slam you shut much longer. No, they’re parents will pick them up soon. Oh, ‘fridgerator, don’t cry. The spilled milk on your shelves can be cleaned up. Oh there, there .. let me get it!
I cringed. And I cussed under my breath. I held my breath. I looked away, and covered my eyes. I peeked through my fingers and saw them pillow fighting with my couch cushions, and I was like ohhhh myyyy freeeeaking goshhhh!!
I finally got them all to settle down and eat some breakfast. Cake and ice cream for breakfast, all around! I sugared them up and sent their little butts home. And then I got to cleaning! And I cleaned. And I smiled. And I loved every minute of it.
I’m tagging you with the Desktop Meme…because we think alike!
Comment by baldwinsgirl — October 8, 2007 @ 10:09 am
oh how i feel for you!
when my girls were growing up our place was the party house…nearly every weekend we had anything up to 15 of them in the house….my theory was always that i knew where they were, who they were with and what they were doing…and THEY cleaned up after themselves! i always had to go around behind them to do it properly but they were pretty good….but at 8 and 9 that’s never gonna happen i know…shit i’m glad i’m past that!! i don’t think i could handle it these days….
you deserve a medal as far as i’m concerned!
well done red…well done!
Comment by anonymum — October 8, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Oh bless your heart, Red! You shall get a mother of the year award just for maintaining your sanity this weekend. Even when my mother has large parties, I find myself in the kitchen (with my OCD sister in law) compulsively cleaning stuff up. But the floors! Oh the floors are always a mess during a party and it drives me insane. Notice how I’m not talking about parties at my own house? I can’t bring myself to have them very often because of the “problem”. Maybe if I had a gathering of nothing but OCDers and Anal Retentives….
Comment by observantbystander — October 8, 2007 @ 12:15 pm
Ahh, thank you ladies. It was difficult not to clean up after them because it wouldnt have done any good. We throw quite a few parties throughout the year, and the ones with the kiddies always make me more spastic.. haha!
Comment by Red — October 8, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
Oh sure, sugar them up and send them home – so they can go destroy their own homes with all of that nervous suggary energy – I LOVE IT!
Glad you got your house back to the way you like it RED!
Take care!
~Bella
Comment by bellajournal — October 14, 2007 @ 8:33 am
i’m SO the same way. This is why my kids are so freaking lazy. i try to make them clean up after themselves but if they don’t like IMMEDIATELY i HAVE to do it. I’m usually yelling while i do it though. truthfully i’d rather do it. then i know it’s done right.
Comment by joebec — October 17, 2007 @ 8:55 pm
This website is a godsent. I have been feeling completely insane lately. I got married rather recently and have lived with my husband for two years now. I spent the first year trying to let as much go as possible and to keep quite. But lately after a move we recently made with his job to a new city I have all but come completely unhinged. Packing up my old space made me crazy, unpacking made me want to scream and cry and reorganization has not yet been completed making me feel completely off. I am no longer able to hold my tongue about the little stuff. It drives me crazy. He drives me crazy. The mess drives me crazy. I spend more time at home since I am in a new city without friends, a full time job or normal networks so I have more time to fixate on the mess which never seems to get any better. So not only do I feel like its all in chaos, but I get depressed because I feel like I am spending all of my trying cleaning up after him rather than getting my own life together here in this new city. I would love any advice you have about stricking a balance. I have been able to let a lot go since moving in with him after we got married — got a bamboo bathmat because he always managed to soak and ruin the terry ones. But I worry that I may be damaging my relationship because I am unable to let more go. What should I do?
Poor dear! Most men just don’t see the mess they make – it’s a sad fact of life. Do the best you can, then give yourself a break. Get your immediate living area together and shut the door on what you can’t deal with. I don’t know your specific living situation so it’s hard to give you much advice, but this is what works for me and my relationship. You’re going to have to learn to let go of some of the things you can’t directly control – like his personal messy areas. Things like a desk or a nightstand or a dresser, that belong to him, need to be left alone. Refine a talent I like to call Selective Seeing – where you just visually skim over his areas of chaos. Hopefully this helps a little.
Comment by stircrazy — October 26, 2007 @ 4:37 am