Why do I feel like a prisoner in my own home when my cleaning lady is here? It's as though I think that if I hide out while she's here then she'll think I'm somewhere else. It's like when my toddler doesn't want me to know what naughty thing he's doing so he refuses to make eye contact; I know he's there and what he's done, it's not like by not looking at me he'll be able to get away with anything. I'm sure that Maria knows that I am not the one who sometimes misses the bowl and pees on the back of the toilet seat in the boys bathroom. I hope that she knows that I am not the one who leaves sticky handprints all over the glass windows and doors.
Why am I embarrassed that she is cleaning the toilets and bathtubs? I hired her to be the cleaning lady, to clean the house. Maybe its just as Bracken said, "we should be cleaning up our own messes." I know that I am not the only one who avoids those who have come to help, Allie used to spend time circling the block with her kids in the car when her cleaning crew was at the house. She would sometimes ask me to peek out Abbie's window and look down the street to her house to see if the yellow Maids car was still in the driveway.
I must hide out because I can't bear for people to know what it's truly like to have four little people that are really more like pets at this age than actual people who can take care of themselves. It takes about fifteen minutes once the kids have been released back into their natural habitat (the house) for things to go down hill dramatically. I have included pictures of Abbie's idea of helping me make cookies two days ago, thankfully before "Maria day". There is no zoom in or out on my iphone camera or else I would have taken pictures so that the entire kitchen mess could have been seen. Just picture a lot more baking soda and flour all over the place. I did, obviously, clean that mess up myself. Also, I am including pictures of Ruby at meal time. This is often how all of my kids and kitchen look after a meal, which is why I am now grateful for an outdoor eating space.
It is perfectly normal to try and stay out of the cleaning lady's way so that they can get their job done without tripping all over you, I just think that it is strange that a grown woman feels the need to hide from the cleaning lady.
2 comments:
Ooooh that beautiful Ruby Jane! Have you found that it is easier to keep your new house clean since larger and you can keep messes contained to certain areas? Or it is more difficult since it spans so much space of possible messes?
i loved this, brooke! i used to hide out in the basement when the cleaning lady came. now that the kids are in school, i just leave the house.
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