One of my main stressors right now is the state of our house. I can't get ahead because I can't get caught up and I clean up the same damn messes every.single.day. My big kids won't help unless I get so frustrated and break into tears (not proud of that). I have tried begging, bribing and punishing to no avail. Mr Fly hurt his knee about a month ago and can't be up on it too much so it is all left to me and I can't do it.
After Mr F and I had a heart to heart conversation last week and I explained all of this to him, he agreed that we needed to spend the weekend taking back our house and it would be a group effort because he is having knee surgery (nothing major, just arthroscopic to repair a torn something or other) tomorrow and it needed to be done before then.
I will spare the details because it really just makes me angry but suffice it to say, I am almost in the exact same position I was in last week. We did make some small progress here and there but overall I am no better off and I am even more frustrated because I told him that I am tired of making all of these plans to make things better around here and then we never follow through and it is the lack of follow through that is even more frustrating.
It shouldn't be this hard to keep a house looking semi-presentable. I should be able to count on my family to help me out but I am tired of arguing and begging them to help so I just do it myself and fume the whole time and then I am really cranky because I am caught in the vicious cycle. And it will be worse after tomorrow because Mr F will be down for a couple of days, SIL comes next week and will be here for 3.5 days and the house will be destroyed then and then we have a slumber party and then Mr F will start 2 a day practices for a week and then school starts. It stresses me out to even think about it.
How do you all do it? Do you split chores? This is something I am talking to our family therapist about because there has to be a better way. The girls have got to become more responsible for themselves and their things without making me be a bitch about it. I am even more worried about what will happen when I go back to work. I know that hiring a cleaning service will be at the top of the list - no matter what I have to give up to make it affordable.
I cannot continue this cycle, but how to break it? I don't have the first clue.
(This is a part of an exercise that our family therapist has me doing to figure out the things that are currently stressing me out/making me angry or both)
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