At Home with the Kids – As My Wife Experiences It 4

I usually vacuum every other day, today is Sunday, and this week Tomi has only used the vacuum cleaner for nose aspiration. I hope he’s saving the cleaning for today. Vacuuming is a tricky subject, though, because Ádám is very scared of it. So there are two possibilities: either I do it at 9 PM when he's already asleep, or I hold Ádám in one arm and vacuum with the other. 

“I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” 

This quote comes from Bill Gates, and I've never experienced firsthand how true it is until now. Things I've already learned from Tomi in the first week:

– You don't have to fold clean clothes and put them in everyone's closet, as I usually do. It's enough to sort them, put them on their beds, and everyone folds and puts away their own. Yes, even the 6-year-old, who had previously hidden this ability.

– Ádám is perfectly happy in the playpen; he can play alone there for half an hour, even three times a day, during which time a lot can be done, and he doesn't mess up the house. Tomi taught me that the secret is not to be busy in the living room while he's there, because then he immediately wants to come out if I'm around.

– If I put the trash outside the door, the caretaker takes it away by morning, and I don't have to trudge up to the waste container with it.

– You don't always have to cook for three hours when guests come over.

– Dirty dishes will still be dirty tomorrow; if I don't feel like putting them away at 11 o'clock, the sky won't fall, they'll wait until morning.

– If everyone puts away their belongings that they've left scattered in the common areas in the evening, then I don't spend 20 minutes doing it after they've gone to bed.

Basically, these are already lessons that made this exchange worthwhile. I didn't expect to learn so much from him myself.

Tomi, however, seems increasingly worn out. He's visibly tired and grumpier. Sometimes he just stares blankly, and I don't understand what's wrong with him. Today he snapped at me, asking who left their slippers out? Could it be that the "house dragon" syndrome is starting to take hold of him? Perhaps this syndrome doesn't just affect some homemakers but can easily surface in anyone who spends their time on a quixotic, never-ending, and largely unappreciated task?