A Bit of Bad Attitude

So, it is nearly 11 pm on a Wednesday night, and I have one heck of a mess to clean up in the kitchen and dining room downstairs.

A family member had the "significant other" fly in today to "meet the family", but said family member doesn't have a house suitable for entertaining. So it was agreed that we would have a BBQ here at our house so we could have a proper family event.

I really had a great time, but I guess I feel that there has been a lost art in "helping clean up". I was trained to help or at least offer to clean up after a dinner party. I admit that sometimes that doesn't seem like an attractive offer to the host since I have three kids under three, and usually after dinner, one or more is going into meltdown.

However, if someone is throwing a party on my behalf, I'd like to think that I'd make the effort to clean up to help out as a gesture at least of appreciation. And this family member had no kids.

I guess as a stay-at-home mom, I feel that sometimes people think I must have nothing to do and have a world of time to prepare for dinner parties and do load after load of dishes. I can't begin to express how little extra time I have, sometimes I feel guilty for going to the bathroom! In reality, I feel like this dinner party has consumed two entire days of energy...and it isn't that I begrudge doing it, I guess I just feel more taken for granted than appreciated.