Of all the tasks I do as a mom, the hardest one of all is....vacuuming.
First, there's getting all the toys put away so I can even get to the floors. Then the second I get the vacuum out of the closet, Saben starts whining & crying. He's afraid of it. He goes in his room with the door shut, but everytime I turn it off for a second he is out whining again, trying to get me to stop.
Annika meanwhile wants me to carry her while I vacuum. Which gets extremely tiring. Everytime I put her down, she is bawling something awful. I wish I could do it while they slept, but that doesn't work for obvious reasons.
Lastly, the mechanism that keeps the vacuum handle upright is broken so everytime I set it somewhere I have to lean the handle against something or it falls to the floor with a loud crash and probably leaves dents in its wake.
So I only vacuum every 2-3 weeks. I sweep the wood floors, but getting the area rugs clean doesn't happen super often. Luckily the dog cleans up any food messes and we all take our shoes off at the door, (well, everyone except the dog) so it doesn't get too disgusting.
5 comments:
I've realized lately that there are just some things that SHOULD be easy but with children, take on a whole new life. Just like you described with the vacuum.
For me, doing laundry is insanely difficult. When I go out to the garage to load it, my 4-year-old HAS to follow me if he notices me going out there. He then will try to roll in the dirty laundry and get into stuff in the garage which I don't want him to. So I am always trying to do it when he's not in the area. That's difficulty #1.
Then when I sit down in the living room to FOLD the laundry, my older two find it amusing to dive into a folded pile (or just happen to fall on one while playing), while the baby insists on crawling over to me and either just plowing through the folded laundry or sitting down and throwing pieces into the air. Difficulty #2.
THEN it has to be put away. But my son is usually having therapy in his room (he has autism and is in therapy 7 hours a day, mostly in his room), there might be a girl napping in my daughters' shared room, and/or my husband might be in our room on the computer with the door locked so the little ones don't disturb him. So I end up with piles sitting there because they can't be put up. Difficulty #3, and it goes back to #2 while the piles sit.
It SHOULD be easy to wash, fold, and put away laundry. But I find it maddening!!! LOL!
That was my long, long way of saying that I feel your pain!
While vacuuming is definitely not my least favorite chore I can TOTALLY relate to the picking up the toys first and then having Allie cry if she is on the floor anywhere by it when it's on. So I end up carrying her around which at 5 months pregnant is a chore in itself. I can barely get through one room without exhausting myself!
However, the other day I figured out how to get around all the fussing and carrying. I sat her on the couch and turned a movie on and PRESTO! NO crying. I even vacuumed directly in front of her and she didn't care a bit. Thank God for Disney!!!
Really? My girls LOVE it when I vaccuum! And if I want to do a good job? I do it when they are asleep-- it works great! I just start at the other end of the house and work my way closer, so the sound is not sudden and it doesn't wake them up :-) Would this work for you?
This post made me sad since vacuuming is my favorite chore. I can imagine it won't be as fun as we get more kiddos and stuff around here. Good luck to you!
I loved thefivedays comment about laundry. I only have one kiddo to wrestle with, but I swear there is a magnet on little people that draws them to perfectly folded laundry and makes them want to destroy its perfection and then look at you like they did something good. phooey.
D - Annika is in the attic, so I don't even know which room would be farthest from her. She's always woken up at everything, even the shower running, and that's with white noise playing right by her crib!
Tiffany - I bet if Sydney isn't scared of the vacuum yet, she never will be. I think Saben's reaction actually is what made Annika afraid of it, she used to be fine.
Five Days - Ugh! That sounds impossible!
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