Perspective

My husband likes the house to be really clean, as do I.

We have two children, ages 3 and 1 and two dogs though so my idea of really clean has morphed into something completely different than it was before we had kids (and dogs).

To me, our house is really clean. We vacuum every day, I mop the floors almost every day, all toys are neatly put away every night, the sink is empty of dishes before we go to bed, food messes are cleaned up immediately, and so on.

With all of this my husband still thought our house wasn't super clean- until he was inside our neighbor's house yesterday. They have three kids, ages 4, 2 and 10 months. My husband could not believe how dirty their house was. Food spattered on the walls, moldy food in the couch, dog hair everywhere- just all around dirty. I understand that having kids leaves not a ton of time to clean but there is a difference between messy because there are toys everywhere and messy because there is week old food splattered everywhere.

When my husband told me this, I looked at him and said "so I guess our house isn't that dirty, huh?". I pride myself in having a house that I wouldn't be embarrassed to let someone in who dropped by unexpectedly and having kids who don't look like little ragamuffins. This takes me extra time and effort but it is important to set a good example for your kids so when they grow up they will have clean homes and look put together- and lets face it, I want my home to at least be a little sanitary because my kids do eat things that fall on the floor sometimes.

Isn't perspective such a good thing to have?