to clean or not to clean...

That is the question.  I was working with a lovely lady today whose husband has just suggested they get a cleaning lady to help her.  My lady was worried that as a stay at home mother, her role should be looking after the baby and their  home and all that entails, which is surely cleaning...  I told her what a friend of mine told me when I had my first baby:  If you spend hours scrubbing the kitchen floor on your hands and knees and one of your little darlings walks across that floor with muddy wellingtons, you will want to murder them in cold blood.  If your cleaning lady has just cleaned your floors and one of your little darlings walks across it with muddy wellingtons you will shrug and say:  "Oh well..." and spot clean the tiny little, perfect footprints off with a cloth.  Also reality dictates that to clean a whole house, you have to either find a child minder who you must pay, book your child into a creche (for which you must pay) or pass the child to your partner.  You then spend time you could otherwise spend with your family cleaning, most likely on a weekend.  Suddenly your time with your partner and children becomes so precious that the amount of money a cleaning lady costs pales into insignificance.  Trust me on this one, it is money well spent.