For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 06, 2019

I happen to live in an apartment where I’m the only occupant.

Sometimes I wish the same Elly and I only have a husband and 3 cats. To have my own apartment – putting stuff where I want it and being able to find it again when I want it without someone having moved it. To have only my own messes to clean up (ok well 3 cats). To not be interrupted when I’m busy. Sometimes I think I’d like it, other times I think I wouldn’t. He does do a lot of things to help me.

Being single and living alone in an apartment is lonely. I know. I held this status for a year before I met my husband and that was the loneliest year of my life. Sure, I had parties to go to, went out with girlfriends, invited them over for poolside chats, shopped with them, etc. I still lay alone in bed at nights with nobody in the apartment save my two dogs – they were lifesavers. I think I’d gone over the edge without them. Yes, I do pull my hair over my kids and husband and dogs but I’d never trade it for the single status or the apartment again.

Never truly happy are you Elle?

Elle, you need a dish-washer.

In our house, everyone helps with dishes. Someone clears, someone rinses and stacks, someone loads the dishwasher, someone puts away food, someone does the pots, etc. With everyone helping, it never takes longer than 5-10 minutes. We keep the conversation light and happy, and thank everyone all around.

Go on strike, Ellie. They made the mess, so they can clean it up.

If dishes were wishes.

There are the 4 of us, and our “pile’o’dishes” never looks as bad as that. Do they not do dishes every day?

Time to teach the kids ‘’Responsibility ’’ Well my mom called them chores.

Did John really just walk out and not help with that mess at all?Unbelievable.

Lynn’s Comments:

Now I do have my own small place…and I don’t miss other people’s clutter one bit!

Problem here is she sees nagging as a duty and/or right.

I think most people who are spouses and/or parents have that fantasy sometimes. To be only responsible for yourself, to eat when and what you want, to be able to actually finish a book/puzzle/project/shower without being interrupted umpteen times, to listen to the music you like, and to watch the tv shows that interest you is a tempting lure.

That’s a daydream that I’ve had off and on throughout the years, especially during the big dinner holidays when my sink looked just like that after everyone had eaten.

The price of family is grime. The price of loneliness is time. To much you time.

Is she thinking of drowning her family in the Station Wagon??? Oh my! How dreadfully DARK, Mrs Johnson!

Wow I would be rich cleaning for all of you….I love to clean….when I was thinking for a name for a board I joined years back all the ladies decided the perfect name was “Mrs. Clean”.

Tell them to pick up after themselves. That’s a great skill for kids to learn.

I wish I had one too. But I want it in addition to my home. I’d go to my apartment for alone time. All the nice things I can’t have because of kids/cats I’d put in my apartment. I’d decorate it and make it so nice and no one would ever mess it up. But I’d still be with my family too. But then if I had that kind of money I could just hire a maid. lol

Some days I feel like I could use a week’s vacation from my family. I want them to go away because if I left the mess would only be bigger when I got back.

It’s normal.

I would go crazy in an apartment. I have to have my space. Give me a cabin in the mountains.

I live by myself (well, except for my cat) in an apartment, and nothing stays clean and neat and in its place.

One of the things I miss about being a solo trucker was having everything stay where I put it in my cab… except when I let my kids ride along. It could take a week to put everything back where it belonged!