Warning - Venting Taking Place Below

OK - I have a serious issue with people who say that they will be somewhere at a certain time/date and then don't show up. I have an even more serious issue with people who don't bother to notify you as to the reason for their inability to attend.

I do realize and respect that things happen. Children get sick, people get into accidents, water heaters break. HOWEVER - if you have told me that you will be at my home for an appointment at a certain time, and you cannot make it for whatever reason, PLEASE have the respect to contact me to let me know that you are not coming!!!!!


As you may (or may not) recall, MIL gifted me with paying for housekeeping. Therefore, once a month, someone comes into my house and cleans it for me. All the furniture gets dusted and polished. All the bathrooms get scrubbed and shined. All the floors are swept, mopped and/or vacuumed. The sinks are cleaned. The trash is emptied.

This normally occurs on the 1st Tuesday of each month. As we were out of town until Monday, I opted to move my cleaning to today. She was supposed to be here this morning between 9 and 9:30. It is now 10 minutes until 2, and she is not here. She has not called me.

This is not the first time this has happened. In fact, this happens more often than it doesn't. I am not a happy woman.

I pride myself (maybe a bit too much) on the state of my home - the lack of clutter, things being put away, the floors being vacuumed, the house generally being clean. It is my opinion (and feel free to differ on this one) that as a SAHM, it is in my job responsibilities to care for the physical, emotional and mental needs of my children, care for my animals and plants, and to care for the home. This, to me, means that I take care of the laundry, the cooking, the cleaning. I work my schedule each week around the household things I do, in order that I can spend time each day with the kids playing and laughing, part of the day "working" to keep it clean, and then, on the weekends, I can spend time helping BB with projects, or we can do fun things together as a family. On the weeks that she comes to clean, I do not plan any cleaning in. In fact, these are the weeks in which I plan things like going to the library, getting my hair done, going to the dentist or doctor for myself. That way, I can be gone for a couple hours, and not feel like I'm behind. When she doesn't show up, I then have to rearrange things, or sacrifice time I've carved out for myself, in order that I can do things like wash my kitchen floor, or scrub my toilets.

It really makes me mad that people think that just because I've chosen to stay at home full-time and raise my children, rather than pay someone else, that I'm somehow less worthy of their respect, less deserving of courtesy that would be afforded to someone who worked full-time outside the home. As though, somehow, because I'm a stay-at-home mom I'm stupid enough to not be offended or upset when a professional person blows me off, and then comes up with some excuse as to why they couldn't call me to let me know they couldn't make their appointment.

If I did that to my dentist, or doctor, or hairstylist, I'd be charged a no-show fee! I think I'm going to tell her that if she can't keep me on her schedule and keep her schedule accurate that I'm going to have to let her go...and I'll have to go through the whole process of having people come into my home, nose around to see just how "dirty" they think it is, and then pay out the nose for a first cleaning so that my house is clean to "their standards"...

I felt this way after I took the truck to the dealer for an oil change and spent 3 hours sitting there waiting for them to tell me it would cost us thousands of dollars to fix what was "wrong" with our truck...and then I took it to someone that I know and respect, that respects his customers, who had it fixed when he said it would be fixed, for less than he thought it would be fixed. And out total bill came out to be 90% less than what the dealer said it would be.

I felt this way after I scheduled an appointment for Captain Chaos, regarding his heart from his Kawasaki's Syndrome, wherein the good doctor kept us waiting for 90 MINUTES only to tell us "Oh! Are you still here? We were done...what? You told me you needed to have an ultrasound done today? Hmmmm...well, I think we can squeeze you in, but you'll have to wait for another 30 minutes or so til we have a room for that" and then we spent another 90 minutes waiting for the ultrasound.

I felt that way when the on-call doctor that was seeing me for my sinus infection tried to tell me that I had a "little cold" and to "shake it off"...I felt that way when the guy who came to fix our garage door tried to tell me that we needed an entirely new one, and he'd be happy to sell it to me, but oh-by-the-way-it's-metal...as though I don't know the difference between quality and a quick buck...

AUUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

That being typed out furiously, to the point that I'm not sure my keyboard will recover from the pounding it just took, I'm going to log off, and go clean my hosue in a fast and furious manner while Captain Chaos is going to sleep, and before Tiny Princess wakes up from her nap.

I am still perturbed about this, and would really like to use much stronger words to convey my emotional state at this point...however! This is a family show, and I'm trying really hard to control my temper in general...I need to go have a giant glass of water, and get crackin' on housework.