Should the home of a stay home mom be clean?

You can't eat off of my floors, or anything, but my house is presentable. While I am home all day, I do things online for money as well as take care of my 10 month old. I have known people like you are talking about, though, and I never understood that, either. I know kids (and husbands) make a mess, but it isn't that hard to keep things picked up and fairly neat. Our home might be cluttered, but it's clean. I've had friends that have 4-5 days worth of dishes piled in the sink because they didn't feel like doing them or they were IM-ing all day so they were "busy". Food smashed into the carpet (like cereal) and such. All they had to do was take maybe 30 minutes and do the dishes and run the vacuum. I hate housework, but since I am home I make sure it gets done. It doesn't take that long if you just do it and get it over with. Older kids can help, especially if they helped make the mess (toys all over and such). I don't know how they can live in their house with it looking like that. My husband would get upset, too, so how their spouses ignore it I don't know. Oh, one time I babysat for a SAHM who had an appoinment. She didn't have cable, so while her son was napping (she took her oldest boy with her) I cleaned her kitchen. I just couldn't stand it anymore! It literally took me 4 hours just to do the kitchen!! There were 4 loads washed in the dishwasher, plus the ones I washed by hand. The washer and dryer were in a closet on the far wall, so the floor was covered with dirty laundry. I did 3 loads and there were still loads in the machines. I folded them and stacked them in the hamper so she could put them away. She had birds that they allowed to fly thru the house and they liked to sit on the fridge. There was dried bird poop all over the floor in front of it. I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed it clean. I scrubbed the counters and stove as they were sticky and nasty, covered in dried food. The trash was overflowing, so I took it out. All of this was before her son woke up! She was shocked when she got home. She thanked me (telling me I didn't have to) but I said I didn't mind since I didn't have anything else to do while he slept. They always made fun of how clean our house was, so it didn't upset or surprise her at all that I did it. You know what? We went back over 2 days later and you couldn't tell I had cleaned it. It was a mess again. How they could live in that mess I have no idea. And they wondered why we didn't like going to their house to visit??? DUH!!!

I don't think that's necessarily correct. I think it should be well kept, but not entirely clean and spotless. I mean, come on, you have kids! A home with kids can't be completely spotless all the time.

Well, my house is clean....and I know what you mean by questioning when there is another stay home mom and the house is a mess. I had a friend once that seemed as if she never cleaned! I would hear her husband say that on his next day off they would have to do two weeks worth of laundry. I didn't understand why she couldn't do laundry when she was home everyday and they owned their own washer and dryer. I mean, I could understand if they had to go to the laundry mat...but all she did was play games on her Playstation instead of getting things done so they would not have to do those things on his days off. To me, it seems unfair if my partner has to come home and clean up because I could not get my butt up while he was working his butt off. But hey, that is just my opinion.

I agree that differnet people do differnet things. I am a little bit differnet than you becuase I am a stay at home mom and a work at home mom. I stay at home with my daughter and give her all of my attenetion during the day. When she goes to sleep, I go to work. For that reason, most of time, my house is a mess. Each night before I start to work, I usually spend about ten or twenty mintues quickly cleaning up or running the vaccum cleaner, but that is about it. Aside from that, the house gets a really good cleaning about once a week. It might not neccessairly be right, but that is all that I, persoanlly, have time to do.

I HATE cleaning & do it coz i have to but my home is NEVER perfectly clean, it's not dirty just a little untidy! I have a 9 month old daugher who drags things from 1 end of the house to the other. She has so many toys & things that they're kind of sprawled all over! I just think well, if i do a bit at a time it'll be ok coz i'd much rather spend as much time playing with my baby that worrying about the housework!

I don't care if it's stay home mom or daddy-o, but if you are staying home, I think you should keep home clean. Not that it needs to be spotless or anything, but at least in decent condition.

yea u r perfexctly alright tht u must keep ur house sparlkling clean since u r at home, its ur duty to keep ur house clean and neat, i read somewhere tht u must do ur job quite professionally no matter wht the job is, so if u r a house wife try to do all ur duties very much perfectly, wht others demand from u, like ur hubby, ur kids, on laws, neghbour, whoever, u hv to fulfill their demands...i know its not easy, but i try to practice it.. i think u must do ur duties sincerely. if its house wife or secretary!!!!!!!

I work from my home, although my house isn't spotless I do keep it cleaned up. I don't see why someone's house should be a real big mess if someone is always there, they can at least keep it tidy. The only time I feel it becomes a big hassle is if they let it get so dirty that it takes forever to get it cleaned up. There is really no reason for someone house to get seriously dirty when someone is always there to keep it picked up and straightened.

Staying at home with the kids is never easy, especially when the kids are young and get into everything and want to play. If you work from home, it's not like you are keeping after the kids and doing all the housework all day long. You are earning a living, taking care of the kids and trying to keep the house clean. The house doesn't need to be spotless, that isn't the goal of the stay at home mother. They do have other things to do you know.

Different people do different things. I don't think its right or wrong. I stay at home with my 4 year old and work from home also. Most of the time, my house is decent. But sometimes, I really don't feel like doin a darn thing. So, things don't get done,cause Im the only one there to do them. And things do tend to get messy. Some people are just better housekeepers than others. I dont think its something that should be judged tho.

I am most likely not the best person to answer this because i am a clean freak! I am a stay at home wife. I do not have kids but i am sure after i decide to have kids my house wouldnt be as clean as it is now. But i hate when i go to a friends house and its a big mess!

I keep my house clean all the time.it can give me peace of mind.

I feel like it is my "job" to take care of the kids and clean the house. It makes me feel like I am at lease getting something done if I have a clean house =)

To me it depends on the priorities. Not every one feels that a clean house is a huge issue. My home is "lived in", as is most of the friend's homes. To me I'd rather color pictures, or take a walk, or snuggle, or play cards than foldlaundry or sweep or clean. I don't think that its OK to live in filth, or in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, but to me I'll ahve years to clean constantly later. Right now I'm enjoying my children.

I don't see any reason why a house shouldn't be clean, whether you go out to work or not. It doesn't necessarily need to be tidy though. I know I don't have all that much time to tidy up and, when I do, the kids will make a mess straight away anyway, but I do try and keep the place clean. I wouldn't expect a place to be spotless. I think someone mentioned that if you're at home all day then there's no reason you can't do it but, if you're at home all day with a very young child, you have a perfectly good reason why you might not be able to keep your house spotless and, besides that, I don't know a lot of "stay at home" mums who actually stay home all the time, I certainly don't and I don't know why people assume that you would. During the week, I am regularly rushing around from one place to another so have hardly any time to tidy up anyway. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are the same. It is perfectly normal for a house where there are children to be messy, not dirty though and you seem to have phrased the question as you think dirty and messy are the same thing. Personally, if a house with children living there is spotless, I would wonder what was wrong.

I think it's easier for a work at home mom to find more time to keep the house neat, clean, and organized, as opposed to a mom who works outside the home. anyway, it is possible for the mom to keep the house spotless regardless of their busy work schedule. It's really about setting time aside for cleaning and organization. Everyone can and should do this.

I am also a stay at home Mom & pretty soon will be working from home too.. & even though I only have one, I do keep a very clean house. I just think it's party of my job for getting to stay @ home is keeping a clean house for myself, my husband & my kids. My sister's (2 have 5 kids & 1 has 6 kids) they also stay @ home and 2 work from home as well- they all keep a very very clean house. I just think that it's who you are as a person and what you like to live in. I was reading in one of my books that you can tell a lot about how a person is feeling inside by the way their house is & I even find that true for myself sometimes, if I have a messy house, a lot of stuff is going on in my life that causes me to not care!

I am a stay at home mom with three children and it seems all I do all day is clean up but the house never looks that way. It seems there are always toys everywhere or books or clothes. The house is never dirty, but a lot of the time it is definitely messy.

In all honesty, as I see it, anyone with young children at home are bound to have some kind of mess! Granted, that doesn't mean your house should be a massive pig pen, especially if you're a stay at home mother. Also, you work from home, so what do you do? Just curious!

if i was a stay at home mom my husband would expect for the house to stay clean. if he makes the money and i don't have to work all day at a job he would expect me to work all day at home. which i would do. i already keep my house spotless so if i got to stay home and do it all day it would make my work load alot easier.