A new feature here on the Fringe is Scrolling Saturday! A cool new meme I saw on Kathryn's blog called Seeking Sanity (great blog BTW! I totally connect with my new blog friend since she has a 4 year old, a two year old and a 11 month old! another fringe-walker and sanity seeker!)
The idea is to take an old post that you wrote when you first started blogging (and you were the only one reading your posts) and re-post it. I have only been blogging for a short time, but I thought I would give this a try!
This was my second-ever post called Cleaning for the Cleaning lady. I posted it on August 16, 2007. I thought it was appropriate since I should have been cleaning the house today, but did not!
CLEANING FOR THE CLEANING LADY
I have to admit it - I am not a clean freak. And the sad thing is that I HAD the potential to become a clean freak growing up in my parents' house...but I rebelled.
After 2 or 3 years of being baffled how many of my "Mommy Friends" keep their houses so clean, I have discovered the truth...many have cleaning ladies! Not all of them --- but many do. How sweet is that - someone to pick up the toys, clean the bathrooms, wash the floors, the list could go on for pages. I sit here in the computer room that is in disarray...thinking of the unwashed dishes in the kitchen, and the unfolded laundry on my dresser, and in the playpen! Fantasizing of hiring someone to tidy and clean and organize my house.....awe........
But that wonderful image suddenly explodes into a million pieces of Lego, thousands of dinky cars, and heaps of clean/dirty laundry with a vivid memory...cleaning for the cleaning lady!
Yep...while my mother kept a remarkably clean house (still does) she and my father opted for a cleaning lady once a week when I was in high school. I guess they must have given up on me ever inheriting my mom's clean-gene. And to give my mother and father a break on the tedious particulars of keeping a house tidy with two teenagers, they hired a cleaning lady. And every Thursday morning I would hear - "Laura Louise, clean for the cleaning lady - I do not want her to see how messy your room is".
WHAT?!?!?!?!? Clean for the CLEANING lady? How ridiculous is that?!?!?!?!
But we did it - and it was all worth it when we returned from school to find the house sparkly and clean.
After hearing the tales of 3 of my Mommy Friends and how much they appreciate their cleaning lady (and the fact that one is accepting new clients!) I started wondering if we could afford someone to come in and clean once a week.
Then, I remembered the rush to "clean for the cleaning lady" and totally related to my mother's desire to not let the cleaning lady see how messy my room was...there is no way I could hire someone to come clean my house...I would have to clean too much!
So, instead, as I type the last line of this post I yell out to my 2 and 3 year old...."guess what- the cleaning lady is coming - let's clean for the cleaning lady..." (If they can have imaginary friends...I can have an imaginary cleaning lady!)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
i always cleaned for my cleaning lady. and, it got to the point where, i was cleaning...more than the cleaning lady so, i said adios...
now i wish i just said goodbye, until next week!!!
thanks for joining in on this meme...hope to see you next week!
HA! That is funny. I have often heard of people doing that. My mom was a cleaning lady for a little while, and she knew when people did that, and really appreciated it too.
Too funny.
Thanks for the sweet comment on my blog. :)
My parents sound like your parents. Clean freaks. I was like you. I love chaos and disorder. I vividly remember cleaning for maid. It sucked!
I agree. Kathryn has a wonderful writing style.
I didn't inherit my mother's cleaning gene either. :( haha.
-Amanda
I remember this post.....
cleaning for the cleaning lady, i can relate! i AM the cleaning lady in my life now...oh how i long for the days when the real cleaning lady would come. i would "pick up" for the cleaning lady but NEVER clean for her...it might hurt her feelings after all.
found ya via scrolling saturday. i just posted mine and now i am hopping all over soaking up new bloggy goodness. i will be back for more!
I know so many people who do this. If I had a cleaning lady, I probably would, too!
I had my first 3 in 38 months. They are now 6,4 and 3(in 2 mos). I also have a 4 mo. old. Those first few years were a blur of exhaustion, but it does get better! My kids are such best friends now, I can't imagine them any farther apart.
I'll be back!
That is the BEST! I DO THAT!!!! No really, with five kids (+ one husband), I feel like I am the hamster running in the cleaning wheel. So, when the hubby deployed, we brought someone in for help. But that only made Weds. the "screaming mommy" day-- we had to have everything in place for the cleaning lady. It's a sad, sad thing.
I totally do it, too! It's partly an embarrassment thing. You don't want her to see how you *really* live (like pigs). But partly, it's also a practical issues. She only has so many hours to spend in my house, and I want her to spend them on certain things -- not on picking up a million lego pieces from the floor, etc.
BTW, Laura, your site loads so slowly for me. I have no idea why...?!
Heidi
I tidy for the cleaning lady because otherwise she puts things where I cannot find them.
I used to clean pretty often. I vacuumed a few times a week and wipe off all the dust at least once a week. Then I had a toddler and suddenly, the urge to clean disappeared. I no longer see the point to keep cleaning the place when my toddler keeps messing it up!!
You are SO right. I have an imaginary cook too and a nanny!
Laura, I think you need a real cleaning lady, not just an imaginary friend. If only to pass along the whole "cleaning for the cleaning lady" memory to your children!
I actually remember this post and like it just as much now. I have heard that it is better to clean a little before the cleaning lady comes because you don't really want to pay someone to wash dishes or make beds, you want to pay them to clean so we always have everything, if not cleaned, at least neatened up, before she comes over.
okay, i admit it: i have a cleaning lady. once every two weeks. i don't get my nails done, i don't spend tons on myself really at all--but i feel better with a clean house. she doesn't pick up after me and so every other thursday night, i pick up every single thing. when you pay by the hour i don't want her wasting time picking up my husband's socks-- i need ceiling fans and baseboards dusted!!! it's a worthwhile investment. but your post made me laugh because i TOTALLY am that girl!!!
Post a Comment