{"id":124,"date":"2013-12-10T10:03:20","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T22:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/?p=124"},"modified":"2014-02-02T12:02:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T00:02:14","slug":"top-five-housework-head-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/?p=124","title":{"rendered":"top five housework head games"},"content":{"rendered":"

alright, I’ll admit it.\u00a0 I am a fairly lousy housekeeper.\u00a0 Daily, I struggle with the notion that being the full-time parent inevitably leads to shouldering the lion’s share of the cleaning and stuff.<\/p>\n

And this makes it very, very easy for me to slide into self pity.\u00a0 All too often, houswork = surly girlie.<\/p>\n

Because let’s face it; I’d rather be reading, gardening, exercising, napping, chatting, writing …<\/p>\n

So here are my strategies for attempting to keep the house hygienic whilst staying upbeat:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Distract.\u00a0 Have an appropriate soundtrack<\/strong>
    \nI am a big fan of podcasts.\u00a0 This American Life<\/a>, RadioLab<\/a>, The Moth<\/a>, and Ideas<\/a> are just some of my faves.\u00a0 I also reckon groovy dance music (and at this time of the year, Christmas songs) make it all much more palatable.<\/li>\n
  2. Do not distract.\u00a0 Be present.\u00a0 Take an extra-sensory approach
    \n<\/strong>I once read the most glorious love-letter about the act of washing the dishes, written by a Buddhist teacher.\u00a0 The feel<\/em> of the bubbles, the warm water … by slowing it down and embracing the textures, this guy LOVED to wash the dishes.\u00a0 Then I heard someone talk about how she loves to vaccuum the floor – because of the sound<\/em> of all that crud whizzing up the hose.\u00a0 And I’ll admit that I adore the smell<\/em> of a particular brand of polishing oil and the way I imagine my wood furniture would feel after being doused in it.\u00a0 If tables were capable of emotion, that is.\u00a0 Now I’m experimenting with this: I look for the sensory gifts in the act of house-cleaning.\u00a0 Paradoxically, this was all the better for this stunning episode of aforementioned podcast, Ideas… enjoy “the Seduction of Scent”.<\/li>\n
  3. Reframing: make it a gift for Future You
    \n<\/strong><\/strong>I passionately love having clean sheets on my bed, equal only to how much I dislike\u00a0 changing them.\u00a0 This is one activity where I try to reframe the act that I don’t enjoy and instead focus on the delectable outcome.\u00a0 (“I’m going to LOVE hopping into bed tonight!”)<\/li>\n
  4. Find play where you can
    \n<\/strong>Can you clean your kitchen floor whilst balancing on one foot?\u00a0 Is it possible to pick up all the superfluous paraphernalia that’s lying around the living room whilst crawling?\u00a0 How many pirouettes can you perform before the spin cycle finishes?<\/li>\n
  5. Can’t someone else do it?<\/strong>Like Homer Simpson<\/a> says …
    \nSeriously, though.\u00a0 I want my kids to know how to look after themselves, how to be good flatmates.\u00a0 Little Girl is 22 months old and can put away her own laundry, Big Girl (freshly ten) is the Queen of Recycling.\u00a0 There isn’t much hubby cannot do.\u00a0 When I was a kid my jobs were: dusting the shelves in the kitchen, polishing the brass taps and maintaining a steady supply of fresh ice.\u00a0 Odd, but effective!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    How do you cope with the housework thang when you’d rather be geekin’?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    alright, I’ll admit it.\u00a0 I am a fairly lousy housekeeper.\u00a0 Daily, I struggle with the notion that being the full-time parent inevitably leads to shouldering the lion’s share of the cleaning and stuff. And this makes it very, very easy … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baby.geek.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}