Evening star., 1944-05-08
TIME SCHEDULE DISCUSSIO,
LAUNDRY HELP.
(ThdnkS to Mrs. r. V. c.,
SiiDer Spring.

schedule discussion in the Clearins
House. Mainly because I have never
found one that worked. I read then
carefully, and in my innocent day!
used to cut them out, tack them uE
some where, then clock in hand (st
to speak, would madly rush abou
the house trying to keep pace. Hal
way through the phone rings, tn.
meter man comes, and the old fellow
who peddles apples rings the bel
and stands and talks about 10 min
utes. I can't be rude to him, sucf
a nice old man, and meters must b,
read, and that phone call was i'm.
portant, but oh, my time schedule
have finally gotten schedule-shy
and when I read one I begin COM
pairing the times given with the
duties accomplished, and somehow
they just never do jibe. Mrs.
C. B. RS from Bethesda sounded
so good I gave it a whirl, and my
hat is off to her If che goes by that
She gets up at Z. Everybody up
and dressing at 7:30. Who dresses
the baby?
I get up at 6, because my 1e-
month-old wakes up then, and
must get him washed and dressed
for his breakfast. He is hungry
by that time, so 1 take him
down with me, put him in his high
chair, give him cracker while !
get breakfast, get the rest of the
family down, feed the baby, gulp
down a little coffee if I am lucky
get the family off by 7:30, put baby
back to bed, change my robe for
working clothes, and hop to it.
From $3.50 to 11::3O on a typical
Monday, according to the schedule,
I should have cleared the dining
room, washed the dishes, picked up
and Strengthened the rooms, made
the beds, sorted and washed the
clothes, marketed for three days
meals, mopped, busted table tops and
dresser tops. In three hours yet!
And in that three hours, who gave
the baby drink, changed his shirt
where he drooled water on it, tied
his shoes 40 times, got him ready
to 60 to the store, dragged him
about doing that three days mar
keting, brought him and the gro
ceries home, tied his shoes again,
sd inflnitum nauseam?
Plus my other difficulties, my
lambie-pie has to have a reason
able amount of quiet while he gets
his maps, thus limiting what can
do in those periods. Neither can
I go to market while he sleeps. I
have no one to leave him with and
no way of getting there until the
car gets home at night.
I will say this, I get the baby
in bed by $50 and the evening
is mine, but in that time I must
do the dinner dishes and clean up
the kitchen for morning. I notice
this is not mentioned in time sched-
ules. I also must re-straighten the
house from the baby's final assault
just before bed time, wash some
hose, and attend to various small
oddments that accrue during the
Gay.
I do not mean to imply that
Mrs. c. B. R. isn't better house.
keeper than I. She would have
to be. Nor do I mean to ridicule
any time schedule. just don't
see how they ever work out, when
you put the duties allotted in the
time allowed for them.
My whole point is this: Never
mind about the time schedules.
Those super-women you read about
iE the home magazines are not
you. Put important things first,
and do them, then do as much OF
the other things as you have. time.
and let the rest go. After the
children are grown and gone you
will have all the time in the world
to keep your house spotless and
plan your meals and run little
time schedules. You won't have
anything else to do.
I do not for a minute mean
this is an excuse for slovenly house
keeping. Keep yourself and the
house and the meals just as nice
as you can, but don't kill yourself
trying to keep them nicer.
If you are interested in the day
of no-time-scheduler, it goes like
this: After the family leaves and
the baby goes back to bed, but
before he goes to sleep, I make
the beds and straighten the up
stairs rooms. Then I go down.
stairs, wash the dishes, clear up
down there as quietly as possible,
90 any necessary mending or letter
writing then, and try to keep the
house quiet for nice long nap.
Baby wakes about 10, I take him
up, give him a bath, dress him
and come downstairs.
If the weather permits we go
out for while, just walking about
the yard, come in and have lunch
and play together until about 1870,
when he has another nap. I make
my shopping list, sort clothes to
be washed and any other quiet
tasks then. He wakes up about 2:30.
I then run the vacuum so the
house is reasonably fresh when
the folks come home, dust,
straighten up, taking time out all
the while to play with baby give
him water, tie his shoes, kiss his
bruises, shoe him off the stairs, ETC.,
etc.
I then go to the store twice a
week, because I live 2 miles from
a store and have to have the car
to market That delays dinner
those two days until after baby
is In bed. The other days I have
already started dinner, and we are
ready to eat about 6.
I wash on Monday, iron on Tues
day, scrub on Wednesday, wash
again for baby on Thursday, change
the beds on Friday, give the house
ar extra shine-up on Saturday,
but all those things can be done
while baby is having his nap. II
something unexpected comes up,
just put off some of the days
tasks until the next day, and so
IN until 7 nofcI, l,r, oooiy