to clean or not to clean...

Testing, testing, anybody out there?  I'm calling upon you, whose judgement I trust and whose life situations are largely similar to mine, to help me with a dilemma.  I just posted this on my blog and it's such a stupid thing, but I'm really hoping for your honest thoughts on the issue:


Lately I am obsessed with the idea of having a cleaning lady.  Don't judge me if you have not yet considered paying somebody to come and clean your toilets for you. It may not be your time yet. It never even occurred to me until recently that I might actually be "that kind of girl". But circumstances have combined such that I am thinking about it all the time.  Every time I find myself pulling an all nighter just to get the toilets cleaned and one more load of laundry done, not in the hopes of getting ahead, (that NEVER happens) but just to get a little less behind, I think to myself, "why on earth am I doing this?" There IS another option. The cleaning lady.


The cleaning lady! I say it like she's already part of the family.  I see her in my mind.  I've already planned what I will do on Wednesday mornings while she is here. I wonder if she would mind if I left Redd here sleeping while I ran errands.  I see cute scarves in the store and think, "That would be a nice Christmas gift for the cleaning lady." the problem is...I haven't hired her yet. And I don't  know if I ever will. There are about 500 reasons to have a cleaning lady, and far fewer reasons not to, but they apparently weigh in pretty heavily. I've been searching my heart on this one. Here are my top hangups, followed by the reasons they shouldn't be.

First, the work ethic. My parents, my husband, my church, and all the people I admire most teach me that it is important to work. I believe in work. I believe in teaching your children to work. It just feels funny to ask somebody else to do something you can do yourself. The problem with that problem is that, even if I DID have somebody come for an hour or 2 once a week, it barely makes a dent in the WORK there is to do around here. I just want somebody to mop my floor and scrub my tubs once a week so I know it's been done. Cause honestly, I'm just not getting to it as often as I should. There is still plenty of work to go around. I feel like I could have hours of help every day and still have plenty to do myself, and plenty to have my kids do. The cleaning lady is not going to do my dishes or my laundry, make our dinner or organize the junk drawer.


Second, Money. It will always be an issue. You always have to choose what you are going to spend it on and while paying a cleaning lady is theoretically within reach, it would be at the expense of something else. But really, how can  you put a price on TIME? It is my top commodity right now. There are so many worthy things vying for my time right now,  and there is just not enough to go around.  Andy has an assistant at work because his time is better spent doing certain things that he is good at doing. It makes so much sense to me to have some help doing the things that take me away from things where my talents and expertise are better utilized.  I don't want Dora to teach my kids while I mop floors. I want someone else to mop floors while I teach my kids.   My time is of so much more value to my children, and my calling, and a million other people and activities, than to my toilets.

Third, stigma. I'm just not sure I can be the lady with a cleaning lady. This is the most ridiculous reason of all.  When I find out that somebody has a cleaning lady, do I think less of them? No! I think, "You go girl!" But that's because I am where I am now. 5 years ago, I probably did think only princesses had cleaning ladies. That was before 4 kids. Add cleaning lady to the list of things I was never going to do, like wipe boogers off my kids faces with my own spit. But there it is. We all do it.  So why can't I get a cleaning lady? I don't want to care what other people think of me, but I do. And it's also partly what I think of myself.  Cleaning lady just doesn't fit with my self image. I associate cleaning ladies with, well, clean houses. I've never had one of those, even at the pinnacle of my homemaking activity.  I don't have any illusions of grandeur, I'm not thinking that if I get a cleaning lady my house will suddenly be clean.  But I will know that under the piles of clutter and dirt, the floors are clean. The jam stuck to the floor can't have been there more than a week. There may be piles of sand in the tub, but at least there is no ring around it.

To clean or not to clean...is not really the question. I'm always going to spend a huge chunk of my time maintaining order in our home.  I am afraid to get a cleaning lady for all the reasons mentioned.  But I am also afraid to look back on my childrens childhood and sorely regret not spending more time with them, and less time being mad at them for not helping me keep the house clean. I think I will get over my hangups when it's too late and look back and WISH I had had more picnics and read more books and done more science experiments. And hired a cleaning lady.  I don't think I have unreasonable expectations.   I already let an awful lot slide.  I just don't want to get my children taken away if the health department does a surprise inspection one day.

What do YOU think about the cleaning lady?