Swells
I am not.
I mean I cook and bake sparingly, sweep the floor occasionally, arrange the closet (that I have ransacked for something to donate, or wear or throw away) some of the time. But, I will admit this, I do not know how to clean the bathroom, have never done the laundry (do not even know how to operate our washing machine), and have never prepared my daughter’s school lunch (a horrible realization). But you see, that’s how efficient my staff at home was.
Okay, I know what you are thinking. But please hear me out.
My justification (mostly to myself) is that I work. And when I am home, I take care of/talk to/ play with – the kids (yes, this includes the husband) that I have no time or energy to deal with housework. And, well, yeah, I had helpers.
That was until some 10 months ago, when my maid of 5 years left me. (sources said she fell in love, got married, got pregnant, worked somewhere else, went back to her province – there were so many versions and I do not even know the real story.)
But, well, she left and that was that.
I was confident I could hire other reliable staff in her place and that my world would not plummet. Thus came a parade of maids – but they were either too young, too moody, too in love (hence the un-focus and frequent cellphone use), too lazy.
Maid woes. Grrrr.
After a few months of frazzled nerves and trying to get to know strangers and realizing it is not a perfect fit (or even a fit), I was on the edge. My perfect world suddenly was no longer perfect – I had to clean up after myself and everyone – because everyone is still used to having a maid and have not woken, or stepped up – to our new reality.
Well, I did find a gem in my baby’s nanny. But her time – and energy – were spent taking care of the baby. The rest – meaning, everything else – was up to us.
So I had to take matters into my own hands, literally.
Laundry had to be sorted before sent to the laundromat. Plates had to be washed. Meals had to be cooked. Floors had to be swept. Bathrooms had to be cleaned.
But…
I did not think I would enjoy it, but I did. Oddly – doing all that housework and seeing to details – gave me a sense of accomplishment. I am making things happen, I am getting to know my own home, its quirks and sighs, what it needs (what it does not need). I felt as if I were on top of things, not dependent on the whispers or the hands of someone for the running of my home, for once. And there’s also a sense of peace. It is as if all that constant activity is getting me to a zone where the mind ceases and I just do.
But do I want things to return to “normal”? Yes and no. Yes, because I get too tired sometimes and tend to snap (ask hubby). No, because my daughter looks at me with new eyes now, that for the first time maybe in her life, I embody and am fully “mother”.
Domestic diva? Okay, I am warming up to it, but I have miles to go.
Miles.
Article by Issa. Painting by Danvic Briones. Copyright 2011.
Website: www.YouWantToBeRich.com
Email: issa@youwanttoberich.com
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