For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 25, 2020

how else?

Agreed. Set one day for the big clean and do small cleans during the week

Listen to John. That’s how I did it. My boys and hubby made it hard to keep the house clean. You gotta give something, accept a little mess and bit of dirt. You will get a clean house back when the kids are grown and gone. Until the grandkids come, that is, and that will be temporary since they will leave and you bring the house back to its splendor.

Nice try, John. Don’t think that’s going to result in the outcome you were thinking of, though.

When I was working, I HAD TO lower my housekeeping standards, that or go insane….. why not both?! 8-D

Hey,Iheld down a full time job too,worked 40 hrs a week!!! Gotupin the morning got our daughter ready for school,made the beds,took something out of the freezer for dinner.

Elly seems to be imagining a situation that never existed. I seem to recollect that there were a number of comic strips where Elly complained about Elizabeth and Michael’s rooms being filthy, with Michael in particular keeping a room so dirty that he had to wade through trash to walk in his room.

“Lower your standards?”

John better “Raise his guard.”

Problem solved! No need to complicate things. Men keep it simple.

John, don’t think that was the right answer.

The truth hurts, Elly. That really is the best answer.

Unless you live in a cleanroom or infectious disease lab, you’re going to have dust. It’s a constant.

El should have taken house cleaning lessons from my dear old granny. We ate on paper plates and plastic forks on the kitchen table. Dining table was out of bounds unless VIP guests came over such as the Queen of England or the Pope. The sofa was covered in plastic saran wrap that made squisy noises whenever you moved your bum, and heaven help you if you forgot to take your outside shoes off when you stepped in the door! You’d be polishing the floor with a tootbrush!

Have the kids do a job. We had a job to do when we got home from school every day. But there were 5 of us kids. Sat. was the big work day.

My husband and I watch a vlog done by a family just showing their everyday life. On one, the wife was complaining that her husband leaves his late night snack dish in the sink and that she had to wash it before going to bed. She said, “I look in the sink before going upstairs, and then I have to take the time to wash his dish.” At the same time, my husband and I said, “Then don’t look in the sink.”

That actually is a true solution found in many households with two working parents. By the way, is John stepping up?

Sort of the same thing that happens when you get a dog. Spot isn’t a name, it’s a result.

My mother was, and still is, a neat freak. From the time I was 10 until I moved out at 18, she had me vacuuming the whole house including the stairs every day, and all the furniture every other day. We owned an old “Kirby” vacuum that weighed a ton and getting that thing up the stairs was so difficult for me when I was small. So, when I moved out, I lowered my standards to once a week vacuuming, washing dishes once a day unless it’s the holidays, cleaning the bathrooms twice a week. I dust the TVs and computers every other day, but the knick-knacks only get dusted if company’s coming. Life is too short to spend most of it cleaning, and a little dirt never hurt anyone. My Oma used to say “I come to visit you, not your house”. I wholeheartedly agree.

The underlying issue is that Elly is failing to meet the standards of her parents. They always had their act together. Elly grew up in the 1950s, which was most prosperous time in North American history.

Sounds reasonable to me. I’ve tried cleaning services with bad experiences.

Divide the work and make keeping clean a competition with rewards worth earning. At least that’s what my mother did until my brother’s OPD took over.

You’re about to get hit John.

You think that something is the one thing you love, but…you may have to give up something else you love, to have it.

A logical answer, but not a wise one.

She REALLY didn’t think of that before she went back to work?? She is dumb!

If she looks at him after that exchange…

The perishable and sparse commodity is time. If you were spending X hours per day clean, and you are now taking that time to work outside of the house – it isn’t going to get done.

After spoiling her family for many years, now is the time for Elly to step up and TELL them they have to do their share. Start with the making of beds. There is absolutely no reason she has to make her older kids’ beds. From there, move on to assigned chores with rewards when done and consequences when not done.

Works for me—-until I can’t stand the mess any more.

How about other members of the house pitch in??

All family members should be part of the housework TEAM, John.

RULE OF FUNNY can be so cruel sometimes.

Everyone needs to help out.

“Lower your standards”: More of a reality check than many of us would care to admit.

Wrong answer, John. VERY wrong answer.