My hubby and I had ONE conversation about this and I'm hoping to keep it that way. I asked him a simple question. At the end of his life, would he be happier to look back and see that his kids had involved parents, or say 'thankgod the house was tidy'.

I'm certainly not saying you can't be a good parent if you have a tidy house- all the power to you!!!! But given the choice of playing with my son and putting the washing away... Son wins every time.

I think it's unfortunate for the SAHP that the working parent often come home at the end of the day before the clean up has actually begun. I know I do most of my cleaning at night, after DS is in bed, there's no point during the day, as it's just all going to come out again. But I also know that if I'd had a difficult day at work, and then walked into a house that had tired kids cranky before bed, a sink full of dishes and nowhere to put my feet, I might be a bit cranky as well. It's all perspective hey?

In terms of what I *do* get done during a normal day, I clean the bathroom as I'm filling the sink for DS's bath, I clean the kitchen as I go when I cook, and again at the end of the night when I go to bed, I just hate going to bed with a cluttered bench . I clean up spills on the stovetop as I make them. I dust when it's bugging me (every couple of days at the moment, with the fire going). Washing gets done when DS is asleep, but the hanging of it (I don't even try and iron) sometimes takes a day . Beds get made in the morning, because it's the only thing I 'have' to do to feel like I've accomplished something. The floor? It's covered in toys. Our place is tiny.... but the toys and mats cover the fact that I haven't vacuumed in I don't know how long. I'm still trying to work out when that's actually going to happen.

This has made no sense. I'm tired, and sugar deprived. The dishes are done, but there's stuff all over the floor and I'm leaving it like that for when Hubby comes home in the morning.