Must. Resist. Urge.To. Post. How. Visiting. Mother. Has. Driven. Me. Up. The. Wall. In. Less. Then. 8. Hours.

I really tried but can't resist. I do love my mother and all - but we are very different people particular when it comes to exceptionally high standards of domesticity and all things washed, starched, ironed and baby/toddler cleaning. Compared with many people I know I have some high standards which have derived from my mother, but they have been tempered by my having to work full-time with children and have a busy social life. Common sense tells me that sometimes "something's gotta give."

Example one - my one and only whinge during my mother's visit (hopefully!).

Gabriella was bathed(for the second time yesterday) at 4.30pm and put in her pyjamas. About 3 hours later I went to put her to bed. She did not go downstairs once during that 3 hour period and stayed indoors wandering around as she does and it is in fact a very clean environment given that I had spent the day vacuuming and washing floors in preparation for my mother's arrival.

As I put Gabriella to bed my mother asks

1. Am going to put Gabriella in clean pyjamas?
2. Am I going to wash her feet - because she always washed our feet before putting us to bed.

I resisted her admonitions and said no, as far as I was concerned Gabriella was plenty clean. My mother in a joking manner in Malaysian called my beautiful baby - "joruck" (phonetic) which is "dirty."

Way to go Mum lets give my daughter some of your obsessiveness about germs like you did to Elliot - lets go 2 for 2.

Finally in exasperation I said to my mother late last night when queried again about something I do differently to her,

"No Mum this is my life and its way too busy to live it with your standards otherwise I would be completely insane by now."

I bet when I get home every surface you could imagine will have a doily on it.