I can't decide if I'm a Clean Freak or not. Does wiping under your children's placemats while they're still eating a bad sign? It's not that I want to rush them, I'm just tryiing to make my job a little easier by cleaning a little at a time rather than waiting for the whole tornado to blow through. Ever since I had kids I don't think I've ever seen more dirt from shoes, cracker crumbs, and sticky handprints in my life. By the time we eat breakfast, emtpy our toy bins, eat snack, read all our books, eat lunch, play one more round of "pirates" and "princesses" my little ones are pooped and ready to nap. And, so am I. However, I know that when they finally drift off to Neverland my other job begins: CLEANING UP! Oh how I wish this wasn't so. I mean, truly, if only I could snap my fingers or rub my tummy, or SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to make the mess go away, my life would drastically change. Like, I could actually find time to read a book, or finish a phone call, or maybe even just SIT and STARE AT THE WALL!
I could go on, but that's just a waste of vital energy! Instead, I do clean up, I do wipe down the counters, dust the tables, clean the windows, amd scrub the sticky fingerprints. And for a moment in time (time just enough for those little angels to wake up) I feel like I actually completed a task! But, us mommies know the rest of this story: kid wakes up. kid gets hungy. kid gets snack. kid makes a mess. MOMMY CLEANS AGAIN!
So, here's our defense ladies: Clean Freak. It's every mother's answer to that dreaded task of cleaning. While it may not take away our job, it at least gives us something back....(and it won't take 18 years!). Just imagine yourself spraying your all-purpose, non-toxic, biodegradable, "GREEN" cleaning agent on all your surfaces: wood, marble, granite, glass, stainless steel, and all of a sudden you are at a Day Spa getting your toes done and your neck massaged at the same time? Ok, so that might be a bit of an overstatement. BUT, with every spray, you could be smelling scents like Lavendar, Lemon, Orange, Peppermint, and fresh Ginger. Ahhhh.....nice. Somehow those fingerprints aren't too sticky....and, oh, wait, there's something else I see that could use a spray, and rice from last dinner over there, and Jack's red marker on the window over there.....what else needs cleaning? "Hey, kids! Time to make a mess! Mommy wants to CLEAN some more!" Just think of it as nature's gift to us: AROMATHERAPY! It's nature's way of saying "Thank You" to all us of moms out there. Stressed? Tired? Wired? Smell it all away and don't waste one precious minute as you "rehabilitate" your mommy soul!
