Mary Poppins and Me

Those of you who know me well know that I am a huge fan of Julie Andrews. It might be because of her beautiful voice or British accent, or because she wears short hair better than I could only ever dream of doing, or maybe I’m just a sucker for a good singing nanny movie. The Sound of Music (which I am proud to gloat I got on Blu-ray this week) is my favorite movie of all time, but today it was Mary Poppins that was on my mind. There is a scene in the movie in which a newly arrived nanny, Mary Poppins, begins to instruct Jane and Michael Banks in the art of tidying up the nursery. Their working song starts like this:

In ev'ry job that must be done,
There is an element of fun.
You find the fun and snap!
The job's a game.
And ev'ry task you undertake,
Becomes a piece of cake,
A lark! A spree! It's very clear to see that,
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down….

(Are you humming the chorus to yourself yet?)

I found myself wanting to burst into this song while I was scrubbing a layer of ketchup off the underside of a kitchen chair earlier today. And, as much as I love Julie Andrews, spontaneously bursting into her songs is not a common habit of mine.

But today was not an ordinary day. This morning we said good-bye to James. As he drove off towards his new duty station in Virginia and I wiped the tears from my eyes I knew that I had to keep busy in order to prevent myself from lapsing into a grief induced coma. Conveniently (or in-conveniently, depending on how you look at it) we have a house showing scheduled for tomorrow, so there was an overabundance of chores to do that would keep my mind from turning idle.  I usually wait until all the kids are tucked into bed and sleeping soundly before bringing out the mop & bucket but since there was so much to do I began cleaning early in the day, while the kids were wide awake. And boy, am I glad that I did!

Josie and Jamie jumped right into action and started helping me clean. Jamie has always been fascinated with the vacuum cleaner so I let him push it around a little. Once it was off he started playing with all the tubes and nozzles. He was so proud when he got two of them to fit together and he excitedly ran over to me to show me what he had done. Next I started mopping the kitchen floor. Josie helped squirt the hardwood cleaner onto the floor and then Jamie scrubbed with the mop. They were both sad when I told them we’d used enough cleaner. I also spent some time showing Jamie how to use the trigger on a bottle of Windex spray so that he could help me with some scrubbing. Of course, I had to stay close to supervise and point out spots that needed extra attention, but it was amazing how quickly the jobs got done.

Even more important than how thoroughly the housework was accomplished though was how much more enjoyable it was to do with the kids. Instead of bending over on my hands and knees, grunting and grumbling under my breath and thinking very negative thoughts about whomever made the mess n the first place, I was laughing at how cute the kids looked with the large cleaning supplies in their hands and enjoying their giggles as they got to mimic Mommy. I probably have many friends who make their children do housework with them, but I know of one in particular who regularly requires her 4 ½ year old daughter to clean. She insists that her daughter enjoys it. I always thought it either sounded too good to be true or too much work to be worth it. I mean, housework is frustrating enough by itself so when you add the prospect of Josie spilling Comet on her clothes or Jamie drinking bleach it strikes me as a recipe for disaster.

But after giving it a try I’m beginning to think that Mary Poppins had the right idea.