My apologies, Mother

My mother called me yesterday to say she had read my blog and felt she needed to comment that growing up I was expected to make my bed everyday.  I don't want people to get the wrong idea and think I was raised with no couth and that my mother didn't teach me to be neat and clean.  Every Saturday, my two sisters and my mother and I cleaned the house from top to bottom.  My mother is the only person I know that vacuumed out the air ducts every week.  And yes, I had to make my bed every morning and change the sheets every weekend.  So my mother is not to blame and she is a pillar of neatness and cleanliness. 

When did it all go wrong?  When I went to college, I think.  I discovered that my sheets never "needed" to be changed, jeans could be worn at least five days in a row and that I could save a lot of time for other activities if I didn't clean or pick up.  I have achieved a balance of how much time I'm willing to spend on organization and cleanliness and what my limit for utter chaos is.  Thus why my office and project room are a complete shambles- those are my domains and I don't have to share them with anyone else.  At home, I do have cleaning help, so that other members of the household do not have to suffer from my cleaning and picking up rebellion-- at least not too much.  My husband has asked me on numerous occasions why the dirty clothes only make it "around" the clothes hamper and not in.  The fact that clothes are going to the hamper at all I consider quite an achievement.

You can blame my dad.  He is a bit of a clutterer.

Comments

[Janet]

Thank you, Caroline. Love, Mother

[Rhonda]

LOL. Having met your mother, a fine woman, I can only applaud your efforts to clear her good name. Applause!

[Melanie]

Can we extend this same apology to my mom as well? although she isn't a clean person either, so maybe I don't need to!