wipedown

[rinue]

Mom and Dad are in Virginia Beach for the week, visiting Nana; this is their last chance before Mom enters her busiest months of the year - many Christmas engagements and then the January cabaret. The house feels empty without them, although it gives me a chance to do housework. There is no real reason housework should be harder to do in a full house - there might be more dishes, but there isn't, say, appreciably more dust. But I have noticed that people tend to get nervy when someone in the same room is cleaning something.

This stands in stark contrast to the televisual cliche of the chummy barkeep, who comforts his customers by swabbing a table as he banters. This is often exactly what I am doing, to opposite effect. Maybe I'm just bad at it; people are comfortable if I'm polishing a shoe or painting a wall, and only become uncomfortable if I'm polishing a glass or wiping down that same wall.

I say "people" but I'm similarly uncomfortable with watching cleaning take place. I just tell that part of my brain to fuck off and stop internalizing patriarchy. I'm not sure it's really patriarchy; it may be a more general taboo around acknowledging bodily secretions. But when telling myself to fuck off, it's more effective to invoke patriarchy.

Comments

[movingfinger]

I think far too many of us have been scarred as children by mothers (that's just how it is) carrying on about the mess we made and so someone cleaning in the same room or even in the same house feels innately judgmental and even angry.