Memento infantia
Posted: April 15, 2018 Filed under: LOVE, Parenting, Single Motherhood | Tags: childhood memories, cleaning out my closet, housework, magical memories, raising teens, shopping maul, single mother struggles, Single motherhood, single mothering challenges, Teenagers, walk on wardrobe, youngest child Leave a commentThere comes a weekend in every mother’s life when we have to put on bad music, trample on the walk on wardrobe AKA floor-drobe, cough our way through crusty bits of rubbish and throw out the last remaining bits and bobs of our offsprings’ childhood. That weekend has come for me. There will be no more Hello Kitty pencils, no more craft that comes home saying I luv u mummmy and no more genuine joy at seeing me at the school gate.
I am emptying the unfinished projects into the bin and opening old One Direction pencil cases and finding handwritten notes from their friends. These painstakingly produced jottings were all written at the age when my kids were discovering the magic of writing a heartfelt letter to a beautiful new friend:
Dear Senny, I thik youre really specil and I reallly lik your shoos. I had funn wen we went to the pak and i now we wil be freinds forever. lov you
I’ve been a single mum for 10 years, so there are many jobs in my house that are being tackled well past their use by date. Despite our multiple moves, some special stuff was placed in boxes and carted from new address to new address. The perfectly unused birthday present textas from the seven-year old’s best friend in the hole world that were saved in the back of the cupboard for special occasions have been dug out, the lolly wrappers that she didn’t want mummy to see, beside the half-dressed dolls with real nail polish on their hands. I put together a box of nostalgia, thinking that my last teenager would be remotely interested in the lost cuteness and innocence of her childhood. She came home from a day out at the hideous local shopping trauma centre and said,
“That’s my stuff, what are you doing?”
“Cleaning.”
“Don’t.”
“We need to chuck out.”
“No, I’m too busy.”
A few short weeks ago she sobbed because the Easter Bunny hadn’t left her an elaborate trail of eggs in our shared yard on Easter Sunday. But now she’s watching make up tutorials on how to copy the subtle facial contouring of the Kardashians on Youtube. She actually wants to look like a Jenner. I’ve failed as a mother. What the hell will I keep from this phase?
More fairytales for single mothers
Posted: August 7, 2016 Filed under: Single Motherhood | Tags: blessed, clean freaks, domestic slavery, housework, mental health of single mothers, mothering, OutKast - Roses, single mother delusions, single mother sanity, single mother struggles, Smotherhood, smothering, so lucky, three little pigs Leave a commentOnce upon a time a lovely hairy mother lived with three not so little tweenage pigs.
Dirty words
Posted: July 10, 2013 Filed under: Parenting, Single Motherhood | Tags: ACDC, ACDC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - Bon Scott 1976, dirt, dirty little words, dusting, Erma Bombeck, Erma Bombeck Quotes, filth, futility of housework, housework, housework hell, potty mouth, potty-mouthed mothers, Single parenting, sweeping Leave a commentBucketing rain, school holiday cabin fever, I’ve run out of wine and I can’t stop swearing. I’d wash my own mouth out with soap but that would involve me doing more housework. As my children and their friends trash my house, dirty words occupy my mind: Mop, cook, scrub, dust. I have such a potty mouth more of them come tumbling out: sweep, vac, fetch, carry. Will I be remembered for the cleanliness of my bathroom or the whiteness of my sheets? I think not.
“Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter productivity” Erma Bombeck
Or as my friend Vic says: “I always ignore everything on the floor that is smaller in size than a young child, for safety reasons of course.”
I want to break free
Posted: September 5, 2012 Filed under: Self improvement, SONGS | Tags: fabulous show men, Freddie Mercury birthday, great singers, housework, I want to break free, Queen Leave a commentHappy birthday Freddie
youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM8Ss28zjcE&feature=related