Tuesday, May 12, 2009

B & B open for business

Somewhere between giving birth and her kids' high school graduation, a mother morphs into an innkeeper. At least it happened to me.

As soon as they have a semester of college under their belts, my kids become houseguests of a sort. I've no idea why this is so, and I blame only myself.

How quickly I forgot that B.C. (before college) I cared little about laundry in the hall, newspapers in the kitchen, rotten apples in the fridge or water spots on the bathroom mirror. In fact, I often barked at my offspring to pick up, clean up, and get up. (Typical nocturnal teenagers, you know.)

Now I scurry around, vacuuming, wiping and straightening as if our house is on the market.

Clean sheets, check.
Clean towels in the bathroom, check.
Laundry folded, check.
Cookies baked, check.
Stairs clear of clutter and dog hair, check.
Front porch swept, check.
And worst of all: their bedrooms tidy, check. That is messed up. When did that become MY job?

So it's that time again. The college kids arriving home for summer. Here come their boxes, crates, laptops, printers, speakers, uneaten snacks, laundry, coathangers and loads of papers and books. All of it is dirty, smelly, and/or wrinkled.

I'm trying my darnedest to get back to being mom rather than hostess, but I'm having a very hard time.

1 comment:

klrodman said...

Hmmm...interesting. I'd analyze you, but I'm no good at that! ha. I did it some, too, but I'm happy to say his bed is so high that it looked the same when he came home as when he left.