I don't like it.

One time one of my children told my husband that she was having a tough time enjoying having people over to our house. I thought that was kind of funny, b/c she loves having people over. Apparently, one of her parents, I am not going to say which one, is really not very much fun to live with the day before people come over. Apparently, said parent is "grumpy and mad".

Here's the deal...she is talking about me. But in my defense, Easter weekend was quite busy. There was Easter grass from the baskets all over the floor and laundry to be done. There were Easter decorations to put away and lots of leftovers shoved in every corner of the fridge. I hadn't really had time to clean, so things were pretty untidy.

In my defense, there was a lot to do. But I don't want my child to grow up with this complex that the house has to be a certain way for people to come over or for her to abandon the whole idea of having friends over to her home, just b/c she has such bad memories of a crazed mother the day before company arrived.

I am pretty sure that we all suffer from this problem in some form or another. What do we do about it? I remember my parents fussing with us to clean when folks were coming over.

I think on a practical level...I need to give her a zone. This is her zone to clean. She just has to keep this zone of the house clean and ready and she's set. She doesn't have to worry about pitching in anywhere else. I also need to make sure I am not fussing too much. This another classic example of me making having people over about "me" and not about the company. Yes, the house needs to be tidy...but at what cost? The words that we use when we are angry/worked up/stressed/mad are far more harmful, than a guest seeing a dust ball in the corner or a scuff on the wall. Am I fussing b/c of my perfectionism or do I have a real complaint?

This is one of those things where I just have to push it on to God and say "I give up. I am perfectionist. I scrub my baseboards and fuss at my kids when someone is coming over for 3 minutes...please forgive me. Help me." Two things are bound to happen here..I am going to learn how to trust God with that crazy long clean up to do list and my kids aren't going to have to suffer with listening to mom rant about the house being clean.