On The Family Tendency To “Neat-Freak”

My mother’s family, anyway.  The tendency to twitch until everything is put in its place and spotless seems to be genetic, and goes hand-in-hand with the face that says “Tell me your life story.”  (I’ve heard some absolutely crazy-personal stories from total strangers.)  Back in the days of shag carpets, my grandmother’s carpets were always neatly raked.  Remember carpet rakes??  There is not so much as a speck of dust in my mother’s house to this day.  They know better than to enter.  Carrying on the tradition, I’m embarrassed to admit that the first thing I did when walking back into my house after a couple of days in the hospital when I delivered either Thing Two or Petunia (don’t remember which) was to grab a broom and sweep the kitchen floor.  My MIL just shook her head!

Yes, my house usually looks decent, but I stress when things are disordered around me.  Clutter hits a certain point and then all other activities cease till there’s a cleanup.  My family has learned to ask how they can help and/or get out of the way when that happens.  It’s not something I’m proud of, it just is what it is.  It means that I feel like I have to clean whenever someone is coming over, even my best friends or my family.  My best girlfriend is also Italian, and we joke that I won’t notice messes at her house if she promises not to notice the ones at mine!  At least we can laugh about it.

This is the annual week that my beloved in-laws take all five of their grandchildren, who range in age from just nine to almost fifteen.  Given that four of the five are boys, this is an undertaking. They have movie days and beach days and museum days, and today they actually did some crazy rope course up in trees!  I got some great pics from that.  I dropped them off Friday evening and will pick them up Friday or Saturday.  Since my husband was leaving Friday morning to visit a friend in Detroit, I decided that I needed a vacation too, so I packed up the dog and took a road trip.  We saw some beautiful scenery and found a bunch of geocaches and she did really well at a hotel, despite never having stayed in one before. She’s a trouper.

I arrived home this afternoon, ran a couple of errands, and then cleaned the house so it will stay clean for a few days. No surprise there, but at least I took a vacation first.  I’m considering that a victory!!