I have always found the amount of mess that my dd (now 5 years old) makes extremely stressful. It started with the huge amount of washing when she was a baby and got worse as she strated ''exploring''! Plus all the toys everywhere, painting and craft mess, sticky finger marks on walls and piles of dirty washing etc.
I know that everyone says ''lower your standards'' but I find it a constant battle to keep the house in an even acceptable state of affairs. I rent and I'm a single mum and they do periodic inspections so if I didn't clean the house my landlord wouldn't be happy and I don't want to live in a mess.
I don't want a show home, I just want to be able to relax and enjoy my dd without her spilling something, getting all her toys out everywhere, pulling cushions and throws of chairs, breaking things and making things dirty.
IMO opinion , it is the most stressful part of parenting; the constant drudgery sucks the joy out of parenting and makes me feel snappy and resentful.
I work 25-30 hours a week so I can't stay home and do house work 24/7.
I am having a massive clear out at the moment. I am going to try and start a reward chart to encourage dd to help tidy things as at the moment she says she won't help as she hates tidying. It's really getting me down and making me feel resentful. In fact it's probably ruining my relationship with dd and I just want to enjoy her and relax.