Being tidy doesn’t come naturally to me.
I spent much of my childhood being nagged by my poor sister for leaving our shared bedroom in a mess, and I’ve spent much of my adult life being (playfully) nagged by my husband for leaving our house in a mess. That’s not to say I LIKE mess. I don’t. But I’ve never been much good at tidying up; apparently I don’t ‘see’ mess the same way others do.
Being of a messy nature makes being a good housewife somewhat challenging. But, being a good housewife has somehow become my new calling in life; or at least my temporary calling while the world sorts itself out.
Now, before I had MS I would do much of the cleaning, plumping of cushions and all that jazz – I didn’t enjoy it, but I did it. But, since being struck down with MS these chores have become even more of a … chore. To do a simple little thing like unload the dishwasher requires a quick sit down before and after. To run the hoover around the house requires a lie down. To clean the bathroom or cook a meal requires a nap in bed for as long as it takes for someone else to do the job or to forget that the job ever needed doing. It is exhausting and probably the worst job that could befall someone like myself.
At any rate, I am doing my best to keep house while my husband works his socks off. That way he has a nice, happy home to return to so that he can get on with making everyone’s dinner, bathing the kids and tidying away all the stuff that I thought I’d tidied away but which had apparently just been shoved to the side.
There is a positive side to being a housewife, however. I get to spend more time with my children. But even that isn’t always easy. Just the other day, having spent the morning dusting and mopping and flopping, my youngest eagerly presented me with his current favourite game ‘Hungry Hippos’. I was in bed at the time – the vacuum cleaner had worn me out – and it took all the energy I had just to shuffle myself up into a seated position. ‘Hungry Hippos’, one of the best games ever to be invented, had me defeated. I couldn’t even summon the energy to push the lever hard enough to feed my poor starving hippo. Luckily my son was having far too much fun winning to realise the strain the game was having on me and that helped to ease my guilt enormously.
And just when I thought housewifery couldn’t get any tougher I am contacted by my kids’ school to say that 2 of the 3 of them need to stay home for 2 weeks having been in contact with the dreaded virus in their classes. So, I have to somehow summon the strength, the energy and the resilience to once again add homeschooling to my list of impossible tasks.
Wish me luck!
The Wibbly Dinosaur 
I know exactly how you feel about housework my husband doesn’t see mess so I spend my time cleaning up after him he is on furlough at the moment so twice as much mess. He isn’t domesticated at all and now my cleaner who comes once a week isn’t allowed to come so it is down to me and to be honest I would rather spend my minimal energy on doing something I enjoy. Thankfully my children are all grown up I don’t know how you manage to cope with young children as well you deserve a medal
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Man, I know so many people who complain about how messy their husbands are, and I always try to keep out of those conversations because they’re basically describing me! I guess I’m very lucky to have a neat and tidy husband, otherwise I dread to think what state our house would be in! Good luck with your own housework!
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I know exactly what you mean. Sounds like your idea of tidying is the same as mine!
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Doh! MS brain …..Good Luck!
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Sounds like me!! Although I was always a super tidy ‘loved to clean’ type person. I still am but my body regularly lets me down 😔
Hope homeschooling isn’t too horrific. My last attempt at home schooling was a disaster, and we would have been shut down by Ofsted as the teacher was constantly drinking in the job and the child just wanted play in the pool in the garden 😉🤣
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Glad I’m not the only drunk teacher out there! Thanks for your comment – made me laugh!
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House work is the pits! Before Covid I had a cleaner ( it was amazing what she could do in 2 hours) but now we all have to muck in. I used to do all the cleaning and washing and ironing and sheeeeet, cook and change beds and I don’t know how I did it. Nothing gets ironed now apart from our bedding which my lovely sis does. God bless our dryer😂 Spend time with your kids because before you know it they will be in the 20s! Housework can wait😊
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Oh lovely, you are Brill, honest and optimistic. I only have my self to look after and sometimes that’s a hill to climb xxx
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