eight days ago, i sent my children skipping off to school, bright, shining, freshly-scrubbed faces, yummy lunches and happy birdsong in their hearts. or some kind of garbage like that. i then spent the day on my hands & knees, sorting out their dirty laundry from dressup clothes, putting away plastic vegetables and hotwheels, sweeping up dust from their dinosaur excavation kits and finding a whole load of cups and lids under the beds. i then vacuumed. i then put a load of stuff in the center of their rooms that was the "i'm not your slave; you will participate in the cleaning of your room" pile, and moved to the rest of the house.
i cleaned the bathrooms, swept floors, moved furniture and cleaned underneath. i loaded and reloaded the dishwasher twice, and hand washed the bigger pots as well. yeah. my house was a filthy cess-pool. that's what i deserve, i suppose, for daring to leave the house and work full-time for a paycheck, while continuing to volunteer in the scout troops and the school.
so imagine my utter dismay to walk into my childrens' rooms this afternoon to discover that the mess is back, more or less to what it was eight days ago. livid does not even begin to describe it. no, i don't frequent my kids' rooms. i don't wanna. i cannot see the the floor of the boys' room, from the clothes to the legos to the books and blankets. my oldest daughter has at least two full loads of laundry dirty on the floor, and another overflowing from the basket. WHERE does she wear all those clothes??? the only thing i can come up with is that she never put away the clothes i washed and handed to her last week. O. M. F. G.
the wii is off. and i mean off. not to be turned on again until my blood pressure returns to normal or tomorrow when i get home from work, whichever comes first. if i have to say "put your dishes in the sink" one more time, it's going to come out as a fist. i am so completely and totally done with this family of slobs. i can't even get the house to remain clean for ONE WEEK. i am contemplating a stay in a hotel for a week just so i don't have to deal with it. which, of course, means i'll still be cleaning it up when i get back.
i am not perfect. i tend to pile things up when i get busy. i am not asking for perfection.
i am asking for an attempt to do SOMETHING without my having to use threats or punishment. i am asking for them to keep the place tidy. i started them with a clean effing slate. just MAINTAIN for the love of socks.
is it really that hard?
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