Tuesday 16 July 2013

Woe to housework!




Parents do not spend enough quality time with their children......
Parents should not make their children do house work..............
Parents should make their children do house work..........

Advice...advice...advice....experts....constantly on the telly to guilt in parents of the world into thinking they are raising their children into social monsters.

I sometimes wonder if these so call child know it alls actually have KIDS?

To tell you the truth I am over it. Our kids are responsible for 95% of the crap in this place on a daily bases. They leave their stuff where ever it falls, and their toys all over the place. Dirty dishes, hot chocolate mugs, and now we even can add laptops, phone chargers, and video games.

Each day it is a daily tread through a mine field of tiny bits of Lego. They sneak up on you, jumping out when you least suspect it and attack without care or thought to your unsuspecting feet. This in turn causes you to shout out very strong expletives, such as OH GOSH DARN IT...... Yeah right!

Kids today are just SOFT! They really don't measure up to us at the same age. Last night I did six push ups. Yep, pretty proud about that. In fact I have been getting stronger, and can now do my own socks and shoes...2 days running...you have no idea how good that feels.

But I am moving off subject.... yes that's right 6 push ups. My boys can not even do 1 properly. 10 years old, and 7 years old... SOFT!


So if they can't muster the strength for that, how can you except them to be up for a good old fashioned house cleaning..... it is way too hard....poor darlings......TOUGH! 




 I think we have overwhelmed them with EVERYTHING! When I was little, we just did things. We had plenty of time to play, and go exploring, but your bed had to be made. You helped out about the house, and not for pocket money either, and I never ever had a bedroom in a state the way my kids do! 

I guess having a stay at home mum did help. I now can see she must have done a lot while I was at school. I am the youngest of 5, and our house was never super untidy. Occasionally cluttered, but our toys where packed up after play, and our bedrooms where always neat.

The media tries to make us mums feel like failures. Showing us pictures of clean children, with super clean mothers, in slim clothes, smiling , always smiling...these super human women who can cook, clean, play with the kids, hold down a full tome job, and still be rested enough to blow their husband when he gets home! Oh do FUCK OFF!

We are fed bullshit images like this....


 ...and this....



...isn't this just so sweet and lovely...

But the reality is more like this....





 Yep nothing like coming home from a long day at work and finding yourself smiling at the thought of tackling all this!

Don't forget  that you did all this the day before. Somehow the dirty washing had sex in the basket while you were busy doing dishes, and look at what they bred! It is just what you always imaged marriage and children to be like isn't it!


 You just want to do this sometimes and pretend it isn't really there...

...yes you do, admit it...we have all been tempted on occasion to just shut the door and walk away. But the horror of discovering that it is all still there the next time someone opens the door just makes you want to run away...


 Ahhh yes.....best 12 seconds of my life.......



We all do it. The last of the washing hung. Stand back and sigh a satisfied sigh. BLISS!

But while you where outside the loveable children you and hubby thought would be an awesome idea to have have created this......



SCREAM.......................


Now the experts would say that I should have been playing games with them, or crafting some kind of educational science project....The life cycle of a broad bean or something...........

Truth is, kids are messy little shits....we love them..we love them to bits, but you can't be at the ready with a dust pan and brush to catch every crumb...you can't yell at them for building a fort house out of ALL their bed linen...just off their bed...you so carefully made the day before with clean sheets.....
THEY ARE KIDS. Let them be KIDS.


But at the end of the day, when you can no longer see the floor through the toys....then I have no problem in ordering some child labour!


In fact that is exactly what I did last night. 2 hours of solid, cleaning. Oh yes my children LOVED IT...mind you in the time it took me to clean the bathroom, the loo, our bedroom, the boys bedroom floor, and hall way, do a load of laundry, hang it, wipe dishes to make room for the rest of the dishes the kids were doing, clean the kitchen floor...stove top, and empty the bins  and take a shower...my kids still had sorting of 4 toy boxes to do which were all over the lounge room floor! 

By 9.30 pm, order was restored. BLISS....

  
Life is short....HOUSEWORK is honestly never done....But your kids are just kids for a short while....



You have to let the kids be kids, but you also have to teach them responsibility and not to treat you like some kind of personal slave. But don't be sucked in by the perfect TV families. NO BODY LOVES HOUSEWORK...least of all children.

They will complain, and spontaneously develop sore limbs, broken legs, and fatal illness. They will bitch and fight, and stop and play, stand there not doing anything.

You will shout, warn, bribe, threaten, and try all manner of positive motivation.  But in the end, you will do most, and they will not get out of it, and afterwards we all have a sense of relief. 

They wont hate you, and soon you will be snuggled up watching a movie you have seen 100 times, or at least listened to 100 times,but it will be OK. You are way too tired to move... your house is clean, it smells clean, the kids are washed and clean and they smell delightful.... 

and tomorrow you will do it all again.......


But not I... it can wait...for today I have other plans.... shopping...kids clothes shopping because last night I discovered that they have grown, and nothing fits, and what does is stained with paint, or food...or who knows...best not go there???? 

Shopping with CHILDREN in the SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.....well that is a whole other story now isn't it......

HAVE A NICE DAY.

1 comment:

  1. Right this minute a certain 16yr old is dusting the tv cabinet in the back room. I have always given the boys certain jobs to do around the house but sometimes they need a good shove to get them done.
    I think it is good for kids to participate in the household stuff

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