I’ve seen and read your blog posts and I have a declaration to make. It’ll probably get me in trouble, but who cares.
As a stay at home dad and as a man responsible for running this household, I want it known that I am just as capable as running a messy, untidy home as any woman.
There we go. Now I’ve said it, I feel much better.
This morning I have managed to feed the kids and bundle them off to school and nursery in clean and ironed clothes. Their teeth and hair have been brushed and homework was successfully completed last night.
That, however, is where the pretence ends. The children might look clean and tidy but their home isn’t.
Tonight they will return to a place where weeds are slowly encroaching up the driveway. The front lawn is out of control because it was cut just three times over the summer. That’s before the children have even got into the house.
Ironed laundry will greet them in the living room. The remnants of the Sunday Times will be scattered across the sofa because I’ve forgotten to put it in the recycling.
The tidiest bedroom in the house will probably belong to Helen, our eldest. This is only because we’ve just signed her up to the online piggy bank Qwiddle and she’s been told we will reward her if she keeps her room tidy.
As for the master bedroom, it barely got cleaned over the summer holidays. Slowly but surely I have, over recent weeks, reclaimed it from a swirling disaster zone akin to that Las Vegas hotel room from the first Hangover film. It is now just about passable, although this didn’t stop me walking through the room the other day only to find a panty liner stuck to the sole of my foot (not mine, obviously).
I have heard it said that men are more efficient when it comes to doing housework. Apparently we’re so efficient, stay at home dads are five times more likely to be unfaithful because of all the time on their hands.
I can assure you neither claim is true (in fact the one about being unfaithful is based on highly dubious evidence). I refuse to be placed under this additional pressure and have my wife and other women expecting a tidier house simply because I am male.
In fact I’ll come right out and say it. In the name of equality, I demand the right to live in a messy home. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must take the bins out.
I have linked this post to both the #wickedwednesdays linky hosted by the brummymummyof2 blog and the #brilliantblogposts linky hosted by the Honest Mum blog.
40 thoughts on “Welcome to my messy home”
At least I’m not on my own with my messy house photo this week.
Solidarity sister.
This looks fairly tame to me. Wait until you have teenagers… #WickedWednesdays
Wow, teenagers. I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, I imagine the mess will get exponentially worse as the kids get older.
You have really left me saddened and dismayed. Tisk. Tisk. Now go mow your lawn.
It’s far too cold for that! I shall stay inside and blog instead.
THANKYOU!!! I feel lots more at ease with my own house now!!!! Though I pass the responsibility of lawn mowing to Mr B! Slopey shoulders n all!!
Glad to put you at ease!
I love this post and that you have a loom charm mixed up with your change/lighter etc! I’m not sure that can be true about men…not all anyway. My little girl’s was one of the messiest creatures I’ve come across! She may follow in his footsteps lol.
My garden is severely neglected….there’s not enough time! Well maybe if I hadn’t started a blog there might be……
Found you via #wickedwednesdays
True, some men will be better than others (…although the same applies to women!).
very true!
Haha I’m all about equal rights for messy house mums and dads!!! It’s our right to keep our messy home 🙂
Equal Rights for Messy Homes. I love it. It’s a new campaign.
My house is always a mess when we leave in the morning and don’t even get me started on the length of the grass!
Makes two of us!
Ha ha ha! Great post. 🙂 A messy home is a happy home… or so I like to convince myself. *glances at the ironing basket of doom*
I like your approach about a messy house being a happy one. I may adopt it!
So glad it isn’t just me who has a messy house. I find it quite liberating having two small children who create mess – there’s no longer the pressure on me to have a house that looks like show home whenever people come round…
Oh trust me, it’s not just you!
The parent’s whose home do not look like this have clearly found Bernard’s watch! I don’t even have time to iron and usually do it at midnight on Saturday.
Thank you for your honesty #WickedWednesday
Yeah, I’m looking at a huge pile of ironing right now and wondering when it will get done.
I am highly suspicious of the men-are-better-at-housework “research” – my doubts are based purely on my husband, but that’s enough. I may not be good at keeping the house clean, but he’s terrible at it. In the end, though, it really doesn’t matter so long as everyone survives the day! #WickedWednesdays
Ah, now in fairness, the research doesn’t say men are better…but they are apparently quicker and more efficient when they do housework. Based on the way i do housework (my wife hates it, apparently I “thunder round the house”) there may be something in it. Thing is, we’re all individuals and do it differently.
I have to confess that my house is messy as well. And I am so glad that I dont have a lawn! #wickedwednesday
By the looks of the comments left here….we all seem to live in messy homes!
You said the magic word!
Stay at home dad!
Love you already!
Thanks Martha. I must say my stay at home status has never had quite such an impact before!
Our house is always a tip even when it’s been tidied and cleaned. I usually only do the minimum when the bits that are brought in from the farm are too much, and/or it’s a Thursday and N’s nursery person brings him home and looks after him once a week before we get back from work.
To be honest I’ve given up. When I moved in we had an agreement of which jobs we’d each do. But now the OH doesn’t clean up after himself or do his jobs (bins and toilets), so why should I clean after him, N and me. It’s not like I don’t work either. So I clean round the bathroom after myself and N, wipe the floor when the dust (I have no idea how the bathroom floor gets so dusty/grubby in the corners so quickly) gets too much, and do the vacuuming occasionally. We do (well, I do) have too much stuff and not enough storage as well, so I think we need a skip and just get rid of tonnes of stuff to help do a big clean and then a proper decoration of the whole house. It just disheartens me to think of the time that will take, when it’ll likely get messy again soon.
My advice…get that skip! I’ve been decluttering on and off for months. It takes time but it is sooo rewarding. Thanks for commenting.
Oh, and my house isn’t quite a filthy as it might seem from that comment above, it’s just my bugbear.
Ha ha very good – I dont know how people with kids keep a show home I really don’t!! One thing did bother me though, well I say bothered me but really it was pleasent surprise….its The Times spread all over the lounge…you see I always had you down as a Guardian reader 😉
I think it’s impossible to keep a show home with having many, many housekeepers!
Yeah you broke some rules but I kinda LOVE THIS! It really made me giggle. Is that fact about stay at home Dads right???? Blimey! Five times? Where the hell do they find the time????? Lovely to see you this week and I hope to see you next week for more #wickedwednesdays fun! xxx
Hahah, love this and you my friend, deserve that right-equal rights to messy living, flipping heck my house is messy too, had a massive sort but it never stays in order so I give up. High five all of us! Thanks for linking up to #brilliantblogposts
Thank you Vicki. Glad to know I am not alone.
The only way we have a tidy home is if guests come to visit, and that’s because our ‘dumping room’ doubles up as the ‘gorgeous, shabby-chic inspired, guest room’. The minutes immediately preceding their arrival are absolute chaos, wherein I threaten hidden piles of stuff that they will NOT MOVE until said visitor has left.
If you don’t have floor-to-ceiling wardrobes in every room, you’re missing out on a massive storage trick 🙂
PS – so glad you’re a blogger, not a tidier!
A blog not a tidier…I love that phrase!
Haha! I love this post but hey, let’s just say it’s not just stay-at-home-daddies who have the “right” (love it) to leave the ironing out & sleep in a messy bedroom. We mum’s deserve that right, too! I couldn’t possibly comment on your final point, however if my hubby is anything to go by (timewise) I don’t think I have anything to worry about!!
xx
Great post
#wickedwednesdays
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