Housekeeping or Keeping House?

We are in that time of year when organizing our homes often becomes a priority and spring cleaning becomes an issue for many of us. In the past I have oftentimes become completely overburdened with the idea of a total organization makeover. Those were the times when my children were small and I actually thought that keeping the house clean with small children was difficult. I now know that cleaning the house with teenagers is much more of a chore! After all, they don't like the Barney song anymore--so I hired a Housekeeper.

This was a few years ago. I had a friend that was fabulous at cleaning and I hired her--unfortunately, this lasted only 30 days. It was a lovely 30 days! Although I always seemed to straighten before she came and I can't think why. But, she was wonderful and it ended tooooooo soon!

Why did it end, you ask? Well, one day I told Peter and Neuman to clean their rooms and they informed me--in a very snooty fashion--"We have a housekeeper for that!" So, of course I had to let my cleaning friend go. "M" and I were not raising Paris Hilton's. Basically, I was punishing myself, because my kids said they were quite fine with a messy room!

For quite a while I resorted to taking the car keys away and I even broke a cell phone during a 'mommy fit'--once again--only punishing myself. Who do you think had to call and request another cell phone AND pay for it? CLEARLY, I am not proud of this--and if you are rolling your eyes either you still have young children or you're lying to yourself.

It was after this that I began to think of some creative way to get the help I needed with the house chores. I do need to make it clear that I don't live with complete slobs, and they do help out--it is just difficult to GET them to FINALLY do it AND to DO IT WELL!

One day I had this incredible burst of energy and cleaned the whole house, the 4 bathrooms and the kids rooms which included all kinds of dirty items on their floors and I did this because I had a crazy, but very creative plan...

My daughter's Peter and Neuman came home first.

"Wow! The house looks great, mom!"

"Yeah! I hired a housekeeper!" I lied--this was part of my crazy plan.

"You did?"

"Yeah! It's this girl named Maria and her younger brother who is on work release from High School, the same high school you go to." I continued my lie. There was a lot at stake and I was being very convincing.

"He goes to our high school? How cute is he?" Neuman said.

(Great! They were buying it! But, I couldn't sound too excited about his looks--that would be weird!)

"I guess you'd say he was way cute...kinda like a younger X-men guy." I said very nonchalantly.

"Like the wolf man?" My oldest daughter said. (This was sooooooooo working!)

"Yeah."

"So which one cleaned my room?" My younger daughter said.

"He did. Maria did the bathrooms." I was even convinced myself.

"Mooooooommmmmm! I had dirty underwear on the floor!" She said.

"Oh..." I said.

"I'll never be able to show my face at school."

"Well, they fit our home in today and they have a very odd schedule and will be unable to give me more than an hours notice. So you will just have to keep your rooms clean. Then they can concentrate on the rest of the house. Keep your bathrooms picked up too. I'm sorry, but they do a great job." I absolutely wasn't sorry and was very excited that this crazy plan was going to actually work!

It worked great! My husband didn't even know until one day I was scrubbing the floor and he came home early! He thought I was absolutely nutso! But, I convinced him to keep it quiet and I let him in on my reasoning. This went on for about 6 weeks. Until.........

One evening after dinner I was doing laundry and asked for help with folding the clothes and it backfired on me!

"Girls, come fold these clothes, I just finished dinner and it's the least you can do," I said.

"We have homework," said Neuman.

My older daughter then said to me, "It's not like you do much anymore anyway with Maria and her brother coming."

Are you kidding! I suddenly felt an aneurysm coming on! Out of the corner of my eye I could see my husband smirking.

The girls went on until "M" stood up and said, "YOUR MOTHER IS MARIA! SHE MADE MARIA UP! NOW START FOLDING THOSE CLOTHES!"

It was dead quiet! What was I supposed to say? I've flipped and I now have several personalities? Maria and her brother are two of them? Doing this to myself would create a good blog post someday?

We all laugh about this now. But, I have to say, I think it was worth it. Without spending any money I had a clean house and I was in better shape, like getting a gym pass and a clean house--all for free! If anyone has ideas or ways you have enabled your kids to clean, I am all ears!