5 Things You Never Thought About Cleaning Before Becoming a Parent
Posted on 05/05/2023
Surprising Things You Never Thought about Cleaning
When you live alone, you have the whole house cleaning gig down to a science, right? It’s doing some vacuuming here and there, then some window washing and dish washing. Do the carpet cleaning every few months, and do a full house cleaning twice a year, not counting the obligatory spring cleaning. Sounds simple enough in theory, done with some effort in practice. But at a certain point in your life, you might become a parent. And then your concept of home cleaning changes quite a bit. You start paying attention to things you never even noticed before, and suddenly you are challenged with areas of your house which were nothing more than scenery up until your kid got to them.
Here is a list of some of those things:
#1 – Laundry
You will never really know how many clothes, sheets, pillow and blanket cases, and even shoes you have until you parent a child. You will know the exact number by heart as you will have the opportunity to count them again and again as you do the laundry. Having kids means doing a lot of laundry. A whole lot.
#2 – Dead bugs
If you ever wondered how stupid little kids can be, here’s an example: if you don’t clean a dead bug off a window sill quickly enough, the kid will find it and it will shove it down its own throat. Kids will put anything in their mouths as if the taste is the only way of recognizing if something is good or bad. That means you have to be fast and you have to be thorough. Thinking about those cleaning services already?
#3 – Baby art
No, not faeces. Not always, anyway. If you give your child a piece of paper and a crayon, then the upcoming drawing will certainly start on the drawing. The problem is, you never know where it will stop. At one point, you might have to follow a pencil graffiti trail across a room to find a smiling face on the wall, or even under the heater. Sometimes you have to be a detective to even find the mess!
#4 – Various toys
You never remembered cleaning your own toys, right? Well, it’s time you called your parents and thanked them that they both allowed you to play with clean toys, and that they kept you alive. Your heart will jump when you see the toy which was under the bed speeding towards your kid’s mouth. That means that apart from all the other messes they made, you also have to make sure the toys are clean and even disinfected before letting them play. Yes, ALL the toys. So think twice before you buy that LEGO set.
#5 – Teenage odours
Did you know that you were a smelly kid once upon a time? Well, you’ll learn all about it when your kid enters his or her teens and discovers new and exciting ways to sweat and ‘scent’ itself. Your son will bring you all the nice clothes and shoes with the latest football practice evident in the air about them. And your daughter will surprise you with her chemistry expertise and the ability to combine all your perfumes and deodorants into a single malignant reek.
Start training and get busy when the kid is on the way. You will have your hands full with everything the kid (or kids) will dish out for you, so you need to be ready for all the exercise you will be getting. And then all you have to focus on is how to take care of your sweat stains from all the spent effort.
