Monday, January 28, 2008

Mamas, Don't Let your Babies Grow up to Have Dirty Baseboards

I know there are men out there who are clean freaks. While I've heard about them, I've never dated one and I certainly didn't marry one. My husband doesn't see dirt. He claims that when I tell him things like, "Hey, why don't you clean up the living room and I'll do the kitchen." that he doesn't really know where to start or what to do. It is because of this non-dirt-seeing condition that he asks me to make lists when I need him to do something.

Sometimes I don't clean up the things he leaves around the house as an experiment to see how long it will take him to notice it and put it away. The other week he left a screwdriver in the kitchen. I looked at it there next to the pepper grinder for 4 weeks before I finally caved. What I like to do is bring him into the room and play a little game. While I find this entertaining, my husband...not so much. I say "Hey Hon, do you notice anything here?". First he rolls his eyes then he plays along and starts to guess. Eventually when he realizes that there's a screwdriver on the counter he starts laughing and doing that face rubbing thing. He's quite the funny man. And then I ask him how long he thinks it's been there...he usually says something like "Uh, a few days?" and then I tell him that it's been more like 28 days. This usually results in more face rubbing and laughing.

His cleaning education is pretty similar to my German language education. I point at something and say, "Do you see that dirt?" and inevitably he says, "Huh?" then I say it again only louder, "That dirt, do you see that dirt?".

(Everyone knows that if you say something louder it will be better understood. DUH...)

What do these things tell you about my husband and me? Probably nothing other than we're both a mess. Anyone know a good cleaning lady?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It was a very small screwdriver, that blended perfectly into the pattern of our kitchen counter. Camouflaged items don't count!!