I moved the couch back and vacuumed the living room really good last night. (The living room is the only room with carpet. The rest is hard wood.) I then proceeded to steam clean the carpet to get the few millions of stains out that have taken up permanent residence and had their mail forwarded.

I remember when the kids used to be afraid of the vacuum cleaner. It was so terrifying for them when they were itty-bitty that my clever husband made a fun game out of it: While I was running the vacuum, he would crawl around on his hands and knees (pretending the be afraid) and try to tag the base of the vacuum. With each tag, his confidence and his pride would (pretend to) grow. Soon, the boys were in on the game and soon they were no longer afraid. Sounds like a great idea, huh?

Flash forward to present day. Now when I vacuum or steam clean I have three little boys all trying to tag the machine! Plus, as an added measure of fun, they like to scream like they’re members of some faraway tribe and dare each other to jump over the cord. OR they like to stand right in front of my intended path and see if they can get me to change my plan or if I’ll run over their toes. (Decisions, decisions!)

Don’t get me wrong… I’m glad they aren’t afraid anymore. But the obstacles of a simple sweeping almost make me want to give it up all together. Hmm… Maybe that’s a good excuse!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 9:23 am and is filed under Domestic Engineering, Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.