Saturday: The List

I was reading the While You Were Sleeping blog & a question was proposed:
Did your mom force any "skills" upon you? If so, what? Were you glad? Do you use that skill today?

I started to write a comment, but it got so long that I thought a post on my blog was better suited...so:

The one skill my mother had to literally FORCE on me was cleaning...and in my mothers eyes it was a skill. There was a right way & a wrong way. We had daily chores to do & that was one thing, but on Saturday we got "the list". The list was about 10 or so chores that were written on anything my mother could find to write on. Typically, mine seemed to be on the back of an envelope.

The list was a dreaded Saturday morning item. The only requirement was that the list had to be completed on Saturday. Mom stated: "You can complete your list in an hour, or you can spend all day working on your list, but you're not leaving the house or playing with friends or anything else for that matter, until you've completed everything on your list & I've checked to make sure everything is complete". (she actually meant she had to check it to make sure it was up to her standards)

The list was evil in my eyes but looking back now I know it was my mothers saving grace. We had a very large 4 level home with 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, family room & HUGE basement playroom. The list was my mothers way to get all the items cleaned in her house before Sunday. It contained all the mundane tasks you wouldn't do on the weekdays such as polishing all the wood furniture in the house (which was a lot), or washing windows (ick!). If the list contained the phrase: "polish the kitchen cupboards", then there was a specific way we knew in which they were to be polished. Always with a product called Liquid Gold, always with a soft cloth & we were instructed in the precise manner as to how much Liquid Gold to apply to the cloth & how to apply it to the cupboard. I think I only got yelled at once for over polishing the cupboards (too much Liquid Gold).

Since I've been away from home, my house cleaning skills are great, if I'd use them. However, I'd much prefer to knit & play with my dogs than clean, so I'll leave the clean house up to my mother!