Published Wednesday, 04 April 2012
Annie (8) gets the worst of it. The Wii is in her room, so when Finn has friends over that's invariably where they end up but (through no fault of the visiting children) it is always a mess.
"Could you help me tidy your room please?"
"Whaaaaaat? I tidied it yesterday/last week/when I was 5. It's not fair!!! I didn't make the mess!"
And to be fair, she didn't do ALL of it, but was responsible for a fair chunk. I don't blame her for not wanting to do it. It's one of two household tasks that are guaranteed to make me cry.
The other is putting duvet covers on. I can clean up boke, mop floors and brush up all day long, but give me a bomb site to tidy - especially one with a bed that needs changing and I crumple.
Finn doesn't seem to have this problem - he tidies his room like a pro. It actually looks like professionals have been in. Poor Annie on the other hand doesn't know where to start. I don't know if it's because she's like me, or she genuinely does think it's unfair that she has to help tidy the room that gets most traffic.
When it's really bad we have to resort to desperate measures. Daddy is brought in. This is a man undaunted by the chaos. A man that mentally deconstructs the mayhem in his brain, then puts the room back together in a matter of minutes. It's like a magic trick, and I honestly don't know how he does it.
And I don't really care, as LONG as he does it. It doesn't take a wrinkle out of him, yet leaves me and Annie like gibbering wrecks.
One day, when she's a big girl, her dad can pass on the secrets of a good old tidy. For now, we'll call in the big guns while we sit in front of the TV, thinking how wonderful it would be to have that gift.