This month has been punctuated by family visits for us. First Yetta and Pita were here, and then my sister and my nephew came for a long weekend. This week, as I wrote earlier, my mom is here.
Having family visit during the semester is always stressful, but certain family members are more stressful than others. Yetta is her own entity and she creates more havoc than I could convey in single post. Pita, while she keeps the boys (especially Wild Man) occupied, tends to leave a path of destruction in her wake (call me crazy, but I expect a 44-year-old to hang up her towel rather than leave a soaking wet towel on my bed). My sister is wonderful in terms of being helpful (she cooks and cleans), but her presence comes with a continuous commentary about how my house is dirty (um, yes, I have a full-time teaching job as does Archer, I'm on the job market, and I have two kids; my main priority is not making sure all the toy cars under the couch are put away every night), how my house is poorly decorated (suffice to say, I think my house is mostly lovely, but my sister doesn't like my penchant for real art or framed family photographs), and how I don't wear enough make up and need to color my hair to hide the gray (for reals, she says stuff like this). So the first two family visits of the month were stressful.
A visit from my mom brings its own stresses. But here is the primary reason why I'm glad my mom volunteered to help me out this week: she does stuff around the house without me asking her to and, most importantly, without judging me. In fact, this morning as I was getting ready to head to campus with the boys, she said, "Tell me how to work your vacuum. I'll vacuum the house for you. Oh, and where's you're sewing kit? I noticed when I was helping you put away laundry that one of your shirts needs to be fixed." Not only do I appreciate that she freely offered to do these things, I love that she didn't judge me in her offer.
Oh, and it's also nice that she hangs up her towel and makes her own bed.
1 comment:
Sounds like my mom. When we moved I wanted her to help me pack/unpack b/c she gets how I operate.
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