I have probably mentioned a few times….. I am a clean freak. Just a little bit.
Not surprisingly, the kids don’t appreciate a sparkling floor as much as I do. Gleaming fixtures do nothing for them. The smell of lemon fresh pine sol doesn’t spark joy, it just makes them hide.
I was in whirlwind clean mode today after bringing Sammy home from school. When Jake, the teen got home, I followed him up to his room…. this is after I’d washed floors, vacuumed, and cleaned 2 bathrooms….
“Look,” I said to him, holding a box of miracle Clorox singles scrubs.
“These things are amazing! Even YOU can keep your bathroom clean-FINALLY-if you just use these once or twice a week!”
He wasn’t impressed. Kind of lingered in the doorway and I could tell I was losing his interest. It looked like he needed a demonstration.
Desperate to get his attention, to engage him in my cleaning fetish, I force him to watch as I blast the sink and start scrubbing it.
“Watch me!, just watch….. see how easy it is!!!”
I lather, I rinse, I repeat…. and off to the toilet to show him how the SAME sponge has enough cleanser to continue the job here. You can use the same one!!!
All the while he is mumbling about how it doesn’t even look dirty to him as I bitch about the toothpaste marks, hair, and good old dust showing up all over the place.
I finish.
And it’s sparkling, clean…. I feel great!
Except I was supposed to make him do it.
Oh well. At least I know I have a good day or two before my beautiful job is buried under another coating of grime and apathy.
momsranting 
A teen’s version of clean sink has nothing to do with sheen, or smell, or stains and crusty toothpaste,
Clean to a teen means you can still see it and recognize it as a sink, it’s still functional and water comes out where it’s suppose too, it’s not buried under a pile of bricks or elephant dung or empty pringles cans.
I think you speak teen better than I do 🙂
Hahahahaha my mom was a clean freak. You sound like her in many ways. I’m not as OCD as my mom was. But I do like to keep a house clean, ESPECIALLY the bathrooms. The kids dad is so messy and dirty even when we were married I never shared a bathroom with him lol. So now I’m trying to teach my 6 year old to always clean after himself. Let’s see how that transpires in the “teen” years 🙂
Ugh. my ex was also filthy….all I can say is start young with them… and they will probably grow up with a double standard of acceptable levels of clean at your house vs his house… that’s what I’m dealing with!