Every other week, I rush home from preschool drop-off to let in the cleaning people. They scrub the toilets and dust the bookshelves while I pretend to be invisible in my own home.
Several months ago, it became obvious that I can’t handle it all. Painfully obvious. I was killing myself trying to satisfy every need around here, only to beat myself up when I fell short. It had everything to do with the shock of going from one child to two, of moving to a new place, and of having a parnter who works a ton, but I do have to take some responsibility too.
I am a perfectionist. I NEED a clean house or else I go bat. shit. crazy. And I have no plans to get over that anytime soon. So when I begged, pleaded, puuuu-rayed for help and it never came, I did the next best thing. I hired it!
I’m still weirded out by having other people clean my house while I essentially sit around and supervise, but I am even more weirded out by the thought of handing over my house key to complete strangers. (Remember? Trust issues.) So, I just stay out of the way while they work.
They’re efficient and are through just in time for me to run out the door again. I get approximately 10 minutes to savor the light aroma of lemon cleaner and admire my shiny counter tops before preschool pick-up.
From school, I take Scout and Lou to lunch at Le Boulanger’s Corporate Headquarters/Bread Factory.
Scout grabs “our table” by the huge windows overlooking the factory while I go to the counter and ask for “the usual, please.”
A turkey cranberry on wheat for Scout and I to split. A water for me, milk and a chocolate cookie for Scout and a sourdough roll for Lou.
The busser knows us by name. “Hello, Mrs. Duffy,” he says, “No worries about the mess.” The three of us settle in for a long, leisurely lunch, like a sore thumb amongst the corporate crowd.
Each time, I point out to Scout that the bread he’s eating… the bread in his sandwich… was made over there.
And each time, he says, “Thank you for showing me, Mommy. I love it here.”
It’s our every other Tuesday tradition.
He thinks I do it because I’m an awesome mom. The truth is taking them out for lunch keeps my house clean for that much longer.
(…and they do double stamps on Tuesdays. 12 stamps = free lunch!)
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The year after Charlie was born, Alex let me have a cleaning service. I LOVED LOVED LOVED it! And we always ate out that day too for the same reason!
What an awesome tradition to have!
And, man a cleaning service…I’m so jealous. But, we do have a lawn service.
.-= Krystyn´s last blog ..Photo for two, please? | PSF =-.
Sounds like lots of fun! And congrats on having house cleaners! I had that once when Phoebe was a baby. I knew I didn’t have the time. Now I just make DH, SIL and DD help me.
.-= Heather´s last blog ..Leading Up to the Big Day =-.
I want a cleaning crew! My house is so dusty it’s driving me nutty. I miss being my normal clean freak self 🙂
.-= Amber´s last blog ..Guest Post – ReOrganizingMom =-.
The one day I had my house professionally cleaned was one of the best days of my parenting career. It was DIVINE. I am JEALOUS.
Also how cute is he for being all “Thank you for showing me, Mommy!” ADORBS.
.-= Maggie´s last blog ..I bet someone’s post topic will be, "Um, how about you just don’t WRITE when you can’t think of anything to write?" And then I’ll have to be, "Hmm. Point taken." =-.