Cheryl, who spends 15 hours a day cleaning.

Smiley_Mum

I only have a small flat, two bedrooms so I need to keep things tidy or it drives me nuts, can't find anything and toys all over the place. When I clean, I'm pretty thorough, pulling out the beds and hoovering underneath, dusting the skirting boards, headboards and along the sides etc. If I slack then it bothers me. I felt sorry for Cheryl, particularly when she went to do the other woman's job at the aqua aerobics, she was doing great and then she got upset and left. I was in bits for her. Seemed like the husband had totally shot her confidence to pieces and I can certainly relate to that. I keep my flat reasonably tidy, given I have two little boys with toys that take over the house. If I have visitors then I do clean very thoroughly. The house is like a new pin with everything in it's place, but like you say it's when you aren't expecting visitors that the house is messed up. You can spend ages keeping tidy and the kids have the place like a bombs gone off in two minutes, not dirty just stuff everywhere. Most days I manage to keep all the balls in the air but some days they are on the deck, and that's just the way it is. I don't think I could go out of the house with clothing that hadn't been ironed, perhaps one day I'll live dangerously and try unironed.

It's just whenever I visit friends their houses always seem so spick and span and they have kids too and I wonder how they do it.

I could relate to the poor woman in the programme. Her husband just kept her down all the time, someone mentioned bully. When she came back from the swap and realised about her cleaning addiction, you just wanted to give her a hug for finally waking up and smelling the coffee. As for the husband, I just wanted to shake his brains out. :mad:

Sofa_Sogood

Smiley_Mum wrote:

It's just whenever I visit friends their houses always seem so spick and span and they have kids too and I wonder how they do it.

They're not expecting you .... the Sods Law in reverse S_M ?:D

But why bother tidying up when kids, or their Mums are visiting? They make a mess lol

Anyone with kids knows the place gets untidy

Pink.

Smiley_Mum wrote:

As for the husband, I just wanted to shake his brains out. :mad:

I felt that he had also learned a lesson from the programme.......although he had seemed a bit dicatorial before hand, I thought that he too realised what he'd been missing by the end.

Pink

Pink.

Smiley_Mum wrote:

It's just whenever I visit friends their houses always seem so spick and span and they have kids too and I wonder how they do it.

No smiley mum, it's not just you. We all try our best, and if most of us are honest, we fail miserably.

The problem is the 'pretenders'. Those that pretend that they live perfect lives with their perfect families. Well, most of us aren't perfect. I know I'm not........I usually manage to muck something up at least once every day. I would so love my home to be tidy and well organised. Most of the time, it isn't, but my children are clean, happy, well fed and well loved.

It's a case of doing the best you can ....and like most other parents I know, that's what I try to do.

Pink

Smiley_Mum

Pink-winged wrote:

No smiley mum, it's not just you. We all try our best, and if most of us are honest, we fail miserably.

The problem is the 'pretenders'. Those that pretend that they live perfect lives with their perfect families.

It's a case of doing the best you can ....and like most others that's just what I do.

When I was in town the other day I had just spent a night up at the hospital as my son had been admitted, fine now though. Anyway, I thought I'd quickly nip into town and get some bits and bobs and I met a relation of mine, to me, it appears, on the surface she has a good job, one son, husband with good job, nice house, no money worries, always looks like shes stepped out of a salon (I felt like a badgers bum next to her) but like you say, no one's perfect. I'm just hard on myself.

My boys are always saying to me that they are happy when I play with them, read to them etc. I was making up their beds earlier on today and I was putting the covers on the quilts and have them insides out to put them on easier. The little one came in just as I was "inside" the quilt cover away to fit it over the quilt and he just shouted to his brother, Mummy's a ghosty and ran off giggling. I ran around the house chasing them like this for a good while, and they were giggling so much they were in tears, and so was I. Chokes me up to see my kids happy and laughing, got tears in my eyes just typing this.

competitionscafe

Dear all,

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me, and we
could all do with a little calm in our mad world

By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found
inner peace. The article read: "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish
off all the things you have started."

So I looked round the house to see all the things I had started and hadn't
finished ... and before leaving the house this morning I finished off a
bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Baileys, three Bacardi
Breezers, the Jack Daniels, the Prozac, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how bloody good I feel.

You must pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace.

Smiley_Mum

I better get those chocolate chip cookies out again then, stick on the kettle for another hot chocolate too...

Pink.

competitionscafe wrote:

Dear all,

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me, and we
could all do with a little calm in our mad world

By following the simple advice I read in an article, I have finally found
inner peace. The article read: "The way to achieve inner peace is to finish
off all the things you have started."

So I looked round the house to see all the things I had started and hadn't
finished ... and before leaving the house this morning I finished off a
bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, the Baileys, three Bacardi
Breezers, the Jack Daniels, the Prozac, some Valium, some cheesecake and a box of chocolates. You have no idea how bloody good I feel.

You must pass this on to those you feel are in need of inner peace.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Cometitionscafe........you do realise I am going to have to clean my keyboard and screen in the morning, now!

Pink.

Smiley_Mum wrote:

and they were giggling so much they were in tears, and so was I. Chokes me up to see my kids happy and laughing, got tears in my eyes just typing this.

Smiley Mum, that nearly had me in tears too. They are lucky children.

Smiley_Mum

Just came across this, obviously Cheryl's computer was broken -