Cleaning and Homeschooling Don’t Mix…Do They?

Preconceived notion about being a SAHM:

“Since you stay at home all day your house should be clean. All the time.”

That is a preconceived notion I myself have but only about myself. Not towards any other SAHMs, oddly enough. I expect that every other mom is so busy with her kids that her house won’t be neat and tidy and dust free all the time. But for some reason I hold myself to a different standard.

For years I’ve tried to incorporate a daily cleaning schedule into our homeschool schedule. It would be nice for the girls to know how a duster works. Or a vacuum cleaner. Or why there’s a brush with a long handle standing next to the toilet and what the business end is used for. Cleaning and homeschooling just don’t seem to mix at this house. I’m so ready to press on to the school work that most days I just say “forget it!” with the cleaning.

And that’s when I had a genius, aha! moment. I had forever been trying to schedule it in the morning, right after breakfast and before devotions and school. Move the cleaning to the evening!

My theory was that we’d be done with school, and I would be in the kitchen preparing dinner, so the girls could do a chore a day during that kitchen prep time. OMG, it’s been such a miserable failure. We just can’t. seem. to. clean. Any time of the day. Even if we happen to be home that day/evening.

Our house is rarely a huge dump because we’re pretty good at putting things back where they belong. But little things start to creep and get left out. My external hard drive will be sitting by the couch for weeks. I don’t have the heart to make the girls clean the Barbie world that they have created in the middle of the living room.  And the dust begins to build up. And maybe a bathroom doesn’t get cleaned for a while. And the crumbs build up under the table. Am I airing too much of my dirty laundry? I’m embarrassed so we’ll stop there.

I have realized that the only thing that really kicks my butt into gear is one word:

COMPANY

When company’s coming over, the house gets cleaned. Except for that stray spider web hanging over the fireplace I just saw this morning. . .

I actually know the answer to my dilemma. Discipline. I lack self discipline in certain areas of my life. Eating healthy foods. Exercising. Going to bed at a decent hour (but really, decent is a subjective term). And cleaning. Who likes to do any of those things?

Wait.a.minute. My   husband   likes   to   do   all   of   those   things. . . Maybe I should be the one going to work and he should be the one staying home. . .

Well, I’ve solved it! We’ll have a consistently clean house when my hubby is the one staying home! AND the kids would probably be smarter because he likes playing with them so he’d make the learning more fun.

Case closed. Preconceived notion not necessarily debunked, but deferred and projected.

          Not So SAM

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