The Joy of Ironing

Today, I have Tatiana of Wonderland by Tatu as my guest. I have been following her blog for a while and enjoy it very much.

Tatiana graduated from the University of Brighton, UK with a bachelors in Management & Travel and worked as the Sales Manager at her father’s travel agency for 8 years. She left the agency a couple months before her first child was born. Tatiana and her husband N. have two children. The family lives in the suburbs of Athens.

She began blogging last August 2012. Her original intent was to share her crafts and recipes. However, her life took a bit of a turn, and she now writes about more personal everyday topics and finds it therapeutic and cleansing.

In my previous (before kids) life, N. & I worked long hours and didn’t spend much time at home (apart from the weekends). Furthermore, the mess we created in a week was infinitely small in regards to THE MESS my kids create on a daily basis.

I am more than thankful for the cleaning fairy who comes once a week and tries to put my house back together. What she manages to do in 7 hours has earned my complete trust and utter respect. She has magic powers to make my house look impeccable. (By the way, please note if you are a friend feel free to visit us anytime. However, if you are a stranger and would like to be my friend, please schedule your visit us for Tuesdays after 3pm.)

Unfortunately her magic powers (and time) are used up before she has a chance to iron and therefore the much hated housework duty is left to me. I don’t consider myself to be an ironing geek or particularly talented in this field (my Greek grandmother would probably turn in her grave if she could see what I call ‘ironed’). So, I have decided that my time is too precious to waste on ironing everything, except for two things: N’s shirts & the family’s bedsheets (if you are an ironing freak please ignore the last sentence). You get the picture, right?

Woman IroningCourtesy of Google.com

Woman Ironing
Courtesy of Google.com

Being a stay at home mom and attending to my kids 24/7 has made me reconsider many things. In fact, sometimes I feel like a totally different person. I have matured and evolved as a person and my priorities have dramatically changed. Prior to being a mother, I was ignorant enough to think I had it all figured out because I had three adorable nieces whom I saw and spent time with for a couple of hours a couple times a week. HA! Please feel free to laugh. I couldn’t understand why Alex (my sister) was so absolute in denying me visitation rights when I came down with a cold. ‘So what?’ I thought to myself. Another thing I never understood was that there were times she wanted to flee the house and go do anything other than take care of her kids. ‘How could she?’ ‘They are so adorable’ I thought.

Well, I have stopped being such a-know-it-all considering motherhood bliss. Now, when reality punches me in the face, I often think back. You seem to know everything better up until the moment you go through a similar situation yourself.

I might not work anymore but I feel I am doing a pretty hard job at raising these kids 24/7. When I have to spend Mondays to Fridays practically alone (N. has been working a lot) I overdose on my kids. I am sorry but it is true. I need my time off. Everyone does. Therefore I wait for the weekend in full anticipation like any other working human being. I need to unwind and think of something else other than the kids. I never thought a time would come when I would say these words: ‘Sorry honey, I would rather iron.’

15 thoughts on “The Joy of Ironing

  1. LOL. I remember that my great grandmother would iron the sheets. When we went and stayed with her, mom would always have us wash the sheets the morning of our last stay – but we could cheat and only had to iron the pillow cases. We all figured no one else would notice! Especially since we’d probably be the next ones sleeping in the beds! I myself very seldom iron. That’s the joy of our household getting to spend every day in jeans, shorts and t-shirts! It’s great that you get to stay home with your kids and that you have help to come in an clean – that would make a great difference when it comes to quality time together!

    • oh, I actually think that my husband N. would go mental if the whole household cleanliness depended on me..you see, I grew up in a home where we were allowed to paint on the walls (my mom is an artist) and N. grew up in a home where everything was perfectly spotless and tidied up. xxx, T

  2. Wow! I was right there with her until the “I would rather iron” part. But I WOULD rather wash dishes, vacuum, and mow the lawn some days. Especially the lawn–the mower drowns out all cries of “Hey, Mom?” 🙂

    • My mom never ironed. She did so much around the house but was not into ironing at all!
      I think mowing the lawn is part of your gardening thing. I’m surprised that you would let someone touch your grass.

  3. Well written. Maybe you feel a healing sense when you iron. Smoothing out wrinkles and fixing issues you can’t control beyond that steamer and board! I do that with organizing and decluttering. (For me it’s about control).

    I agree with what Larry said above — How neat that opposites attracted!

    • It’s funny because ironing is the one thing my mother never did. My wife doesn’t do it either. I am very familiar with the dry cleaner.

  4. I HATE ironing. I do love doing dishes and making simple dinner without the kids. This happens usually on the weekend when my husband is at home so he can play with them. I NEVER iron. I only buy clothes that don’t need to be ironed or my husband sends them out to be pressed.

  5. Hi,

    I had to laugh at this one, because I hate ironing. I used to have to iron my dad’s white shirts for Sunday church service, and somehow or other, the iron was always too hot.

    However, I enjoyed reading the article. It is a very nice post.

    Shalom,
    Pat

    • The one chore my mom never did was iron. My wife doesn’t do it either. I am very familiar with the dry cleaners.

  6. I really enjoyed this post, I was able to relate with Tatiana in many aspects ; except the “ironing” , I love doing the laundry but not the ironing! I send all hubby’s clothing to the dry cleaning on Wednesdays! & I say “Sorry honey, I rather bake” but even when hubby helps in the weekend with our son, Nate always manages to stay in the kitchen with me! 🙂

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