Posted by noa on April 6, 2003, at 22:00:28
In reply to Re: The endless mess to Noa Coral, posted by shar on April 6, 2003, at 21:24:12
Thanks, Sboatrn, jyl, coral, shar!
Shar, I, too, have one, maybe two friends, not local ones, who I could let see this mess. My very far away friend has actually joked about coming over to help me clean. I would love that. But alas, thousands of miles between us....
I guess it does make me appreciate my own mom. How the heck did she do it? We did have some cleaning help--every 2 weeks, she had a woman clean the place. But it was one of those strange situations where it was actually more work for my mom in some ways. The cleaning lady was developmentally disabled. My mom's friend was an advocate in a special program to employ disabled adults, and had all her friends hire this woman. I guess she was pretty good at some aspects of cleaning, but was rather high maintenance to supervise. But the one thing Anna could do that no one else in the family could do was -- wash the dog! Yep, the dog. When we tried to give him a bath, it was a total disaster, and we'd end up with a huge mess, a wet, soapy dog, and scratches all over us from his trying to escape. It got so he refused to go anywhere near the bathroom. Except when Anna came over. He'd wag his tail, and skip right up to the bathroom and have a grand old time. He loved her so much. My mom would pick her up at the bus stop, and when the car was about a quarter mile away, he would go nuts--he could smell that she was coming!
She talked to him and I think he talked to her--I think she understood him, really.
When us kids were already out of the house, and my mom couldn't care for him any longer, she gave him to Anna, and I think it was bliss for both of them.
But in terms of keeping the house fairly clean and quite organized--I now marvel at how my mom did it. And she was a working mom. My dad, too. They each had their own "territories", divided across traditional sex role lines, of course.
Me? No kids to use as an excuse for the mess. My therapist thinks I'd actually keep it neater if I had the responsibility of kids. Maybe he's right.
poster:noa
thread:216795
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030401/msgs/216837.html