Cleaning with a toddler around. That’s an oxymoron or something isn’t it? As my daughter and I rushed to clean and organize our house this weekend, we found a trail of new messes behind us. Little brother just can’t seem to help himself. Everywhere he goes, he envisions another dinosaur scene he needs to act out, spills something as he goes to get more dinosaurs, tracks in mud, or knocks something over on his way back. He is always eating something, and drops a chip or two and then, stomp, crumbs everywhere again. Is there some kind of equation demonstrating the speed of my cleaning versus the mess energy of my toddler that ever comes out in mom’s favor?
Looking around this Monday, I think we managed to get rid of lots of spider webs and dust bunnies. But most of the pesky little toys crawled back out of the toy box again, and most of my dishes seem to have wandered around and jumped back in the sink. And if we swept or vacuumed…you wouldn’t even know it. It’s a good thing I’ve never been one to stress about mess.
I have found one super great way to get ahead of my war against dirty laundry though. It seems my daughter will do just about anything for a few hours with my phone. She loves to watch videos and Google this and that. So I’ve started cutting deals with her on weekends and holidays, that she can keep my phone and stay up late when I go to bed if she’ll stay up folding laundry while she watches videos. So every morning the past three days I’ve come out to see giant piles of neatly folded clothes and towels and shirts hung up. It’s extraordinary. She’s the laundry phone fairy. She even VOLUNTEERED to do the dishes for phone time. A teenager who volunteers to do dishes…it’s truly a dream come true.
Hmm…this could be an interesting part of the equation.