Here is the full-version of my latest writing piece at Mile High Mamas, the parenting blog for The Denver Post!
Why do you make your bed?
February 6, 2009
Guest blogger Momma writes at The Casual Perfectionist, and just like the name indicates, she is an admitted perfectionist, but she’s trying to be casual about it. She and her husband have a 3-year-old girl named Claire. Momma is a firm believer in the fact that if you haven’t laughed today, you weren’t really paying attention.
I am probably the most casual perfectionist you’ll ever meet. I love it when things are just-so. I love knowing what to expect, and having a plan, and I need all my picture frames to be straight…not necessarily dusted every day, but straight. Again, I’m a perfectionist, but I’m trying to be casual about it.
But, there are some aspects of my life that don’t fit into that “perfectionist” stereotype.
For example, I don’t make my bed every day.
There, I admitted it out loud.
What can I say? My perfectionism is a psychosis wrapped in an enigma, dipped in a mystery and then deep-fat-fried in a vat of contradiction. Once it’s cooled, I like it sprinkled with powdered-sugar.
Growing up, I had the top bunk, and my mom may or may not have told me that spiders would get in my bed if I didn’t make it. So, it’s no wonder that I made my bed every single day, usually within moments of getting up.
In college, I made my bed every day, because my bed doubled as the couch in my dorm room.
After I graduated, I moved out on my own, and realized that spiders weren’t going to get into my bed (or could get in whether I had it made or not), and my couch was the couch in the room, so I became a slacker in the bed-making department.
Now, if you’ve ever visited our home, you think I make my bed. It’s always made when we have company. Even if someone shows up unannounced, I find time to run in and make it quickly before anyone is the wiser.
Not making your bed is embarrassing. Maybe I fit the perfectionist stereotype a little more than I thought? But still…if we don’t have guests coming over, at night, the bed will look exactly like it did when I stumbled out of it that morning.
Well, can’t my husband make the bed? Sure! But, he gets up before I do, so the responsibility really is mine and mine alone.
Claire has a big girl bed, and although it’s difficult to make, she loves doing it. All without prompting, she makes her bed every morning.
The other day, she came in to wake us up and told me that she’d made her bed.
“Great! That’s awesome! You’re really good at making your bed!” I said to her, genuinely excited.
“Thank you, Momma! You’re really good at NOT making your bed!” she said, matter-of-factly and with just as much enthusiasm.
She thought she was giving me a compliment, but instead, she’d caught me!
Needless to say, I’ve made my bed every day since.
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I was out of town when this published on MHM but I got a kick out of it. For 20 years, I made my bed every day. It was almost a compulsion. Now? Maybe 50% of the time when 1) we have guests or 2) I wash the sheets or 3) I have to readjust the pillow top mattress. Now, it’s just easier to leave it unmade because it’s easier to fall into at any given moment of the day.