Balancing life lessons can be real chore

As another weekend rolls around, I begin to compose a list of housecleaning chores in my head. My three-level home and family of four, including two teenagers and a dog and cat, requires quite a bit of upkeep.

Sweeping and mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms, dusting furniture, washing and folding clothes and organizing piles of papers that have accumulated on the dining room table over the week will take the majority of my Saturday.

Eventually, exhausted, I retreat to the couch in front of the TV, feeling guilty that I couldn’t get more done. If only I had some housecleaning help to get me through the weekend.

I have considered hiring a cleaning service to help me with these daunting chores but I am afraid of giving my children the wrong impression. I don’t want them to think you can make a mess and just hire someone to clean up after you.

We have all heard the horror stories of college students who don’t know how to put sheets on a bed or young adults who can hardly mop a floor or iron a shirt. My maternal instinct tells me that I need to teach my children how to perform these chores proficiently before they leave home.

I called a friend in Southern California, a housewife who has cleaning help twice a month, to ask her thoughts. She responded that some of her neighbors and friends regard cleaning assistance as a necessity. “Once you hire cleaning help, it is hard to go without it,” she warned me.

Comments on the issue from other parents on the Parents Council blog varied. One parent compared paying cleaning help to paying for services like car maintenance, yard work, dog grooming and dry cleaning. Another parent commented that their children are capable of completing the tasks I would be asking others to carry out in exchange for pay.

However, do I really want my 13-year-old daughter helping me scrub grout in the bathroom or my 18-year-old son polishing furniture in the dining room? Not only would it take significant encouragement, they may not be able to do the kind of job I would be proud to show house guests.

Is it necessary for a family of four to need help cleaning their house? We are all able-bodied individuals and, thankfully, capable of doing all the things required to maintain a clean and organized home. We also have a chore list that I call “The Everyone’s Happy Cleaning and Financial Plan.” This plan includes chores that our children do every week to earn their allowance. These chores consist of taking out the garbage and recycling, vacuuming the family room, picking up bedrooms and putting away laundry. This plan really does keep everyone happy. Chores are completed (I’m happy) and the kids get some cash in their pocket (they’re happy).

However, it does not address the heavy-duty housecleaning needed in order to keep a household well organized. The time I spend teaching my kids to complete these chores or doing them myself is time I would rather spend doing something else on the weekend. What about that novel I started a year ago or those pictures I would like to put into albums?

Paying for a housecleaning service is a “luxury” I would include in our household expenses even though we are all capable of doing the work ourselves. I am also capable of washing my car and doing my laundry, but I use the car wash and the dry cleaners. I don’t think that makes me less responsible. I hope my children see it the same way. We will all continue to contribute to the household chores but leave the “nitty-gritty” to the professionals.