That’s My Name!

My husband and I have always used pet names for each other.  Now that we have two boys, we call each other what they call us, Mom and Dad.  My oldest had to ask what our ‘real’ names were when he was in Kindergarten, poor thing, but there you go.  We will hopefully become Grandma and Grandpa some day in the VERY DISTANT future, but until then we will probably keep the names we have.

It is a few days before Mother’s Day, and I’m trying to get some work done in between my six trips to two different schools – dropping off and picking up kids, volunteering and doing Yard Duty – and my husband decided to stay home from work to get some projects done around the house (being a self employed Tax Accountant, he deserves some time off now that it is finally May).

Unfortunately, I am hearing my name so often that I can’t even listen to my audio book, let alone get any work done.  My husband’s Mother’s Day present to me this year, he spontaneously decided this morning while fixing the noisy toilet, is to clean the house for me, so I won’t have to do any cleaning this weekend.  If you are a mom who regularly does all the housework, you know what a mixed blessing this present can be.  On the one hand, I am not the one doing the actual work (yipeeeee!), but on the other hand, I might as well be doing the work since it is like training a new employee – he is asking lots of questions about how to do things.

Before we remodeled our house (4 years ago) he knew how to run all the appliances necessary to run the household, since this was his job for about three months while I was laid up with two broken legs while 8 months pregnant (see the book for details on this true adventure in my life).  Regularly in the ensuing 9 years, he would willingly help around the house, because he is an amazing husband, of course.  It is now obvious that he hasn’t done any housework in 4 years, and has to learn how to load and turn on the dishwasher, load and turn on the washing machine and vacuum the hard wood floors without scratching them.

I learned a long time ago to let go of my obsession with my house being cleaned ‘my way’, so however it gets cleaned is fine by me!  He is vacuuming right now, and it has taken an hour so far.  In a 1600 sq. ft. house, that is saying something!  I hope this task is taking longer due to his determination to clean all the areas I regularly miss when I get it done in about 20 minutes – you know, like all the baseboards and window sills . . .

I know that I will appreciate his handiwork when I am relaxing this weekend, unless I am trying to catch up on all the work I couldn’t get done today.

Hearing the name ‘Mom’ is usually the best part of my day . . . until someone tries to give me a Mother’s Day present.