You know the illustrative myth of Sisyphus?  Condemned to roll a boulder up a hill in hell which tumbles back to the bottom right before he reaches the top every time? It’s about futility, but let me tell you that Greek dude has nothing on parents of toddlers.  It’s impossible to clean a house containing one.  I can’t ever seem to get over the crap I find in the strangest places.  I can’t even count how many times I’ve wondered: Why the hell am I cleaning this here?  What is the reason for this?  Then I clean it and it’s dirty again 2 seconds later, Oh the Futility!

Both my husband and I were recently very sick but our daughter was fine and dandy.  Very quickly things devolved into complete entropy, the house became almost borderline filthy, like Department of Child Affairs filthy, because neither of us could clean but our daughter could go on creating one mess after another.  I remember having very bitter thoughts about my super nice neighbors–a couple who do not have children–thinking when they clean shit, it actually stays clean, even if they are sick!!!  What a concept.  On the other hand, I also believe you cannot truly appreciate having a clean house in the future, say the someday when my daughter moves out (and/or cleans up after herself which she already does to some extent) until you have experienced the futility of cleaning in its truest form: cleaning a house with a toddler in it.  At least I can look forward to knowing I can truly appreciate something like that which would probably never occur to childless people.  The lucky bastards.