So as I’m looking around my apartment this weekend noticing all the things I need to do I realized something. I am so not a 1950’s house wife. I spend ninety percent of my time in yoga pants or pajama pants and a t-shirt or hoodie. My laundry goes unfolded for days and my living room looks like a tornado hit it after my daughter is done playing for the days. I don’t do the dishes after every meal and I truly HATE dusting
There are times where after washing three loads of laundry (we live in an apartment so we don’t have the option of doing laundry everyday) I just look at it and say nope. It sometimes sits there until ether we have reused it all or it annoys me to much so I put it all away. While standing there this week end looking at what seemed like a never ending pile I thought about my great grandmother who had eleven kids and my grandmother who had seven kids.
My grandmother was a 1950’s house wife. Her house always clean. Cloths were put away and the kitchen was spotless. Bathrooms never had any stains or soap marks and could never tell if the breakables were ever moved because was not a speck of dust in the house. How with seven daughters and a husband who spent one hundred percent of his time on a tractor she managed to do that blows my mind.
After my daughter being up and playing for eight to ten hours my house looks like a Kansas twister went threw it. Toy bins knocked over and pony’s tucked in the couch cushions or thrown out the back door. Yes my husband and I both work full time. Yes some days all I want to do is come home and sleep. Never, ever will I understand or comprehend how my Grandmother kept her house looking like a museum/model home. With seven daughters and fourteen grandchildren how did she do it. I never saw a duster. I never saw a vacuum (except Christmas). I never saw cleaner. Yet everyday I showed up at her house it was perfect. She never looked wore out. She never looked like she had spent the night cleaning she was always done up and perfect looking. How someone who has an army or children and also has a house that looks like model home and still look like a runway model mom amazes me. Some days I’m lucky to brush my hair. Makeup is a yep not happening and a dress and heels is just not in the picture. Yet my grandmother always, I mean always had all of these things done. Makeup was never smeared. Hair was never out of place and for damn sure her dress never had a wrinkle in it. Also she still had time to sow and make blankets, Barbie cloths and kids cloths. HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? Some days I’m lucky to even put a bra on under my hoodie.
Growing up we had breakfast, lunch and dinner at the kitchen or dining room table EVERY day at 7am, 12pm and 6pm. It was always full meals with a little bit of everything from the food pyramid. She had an amazing table in both room. Both tables had extensional so if there was a ton of people there was still room for them. The three of us live in a one bedroom apartment and I have and adult folding table and a children’s folding table. Some days I’m lucky to be awake enough to give her three groups on the food pyramid. Some days it’s nuggets and some fruit for dinner.
Now all of these things I’m complaining about I understand are my own doing and if I tried harder I could probably do the exact same thing she did, but some days it takes effort to just wake up after only four hours of sleep. I give props to all the 1950s moms and housewives. You managed to do things I couldn’t dream of. I truly am not a 1950s house wife.