![\"Husband](\"https:\/\/lwm-a2.azureedge.net\/uploads\/2019\/01\/ClintEdwardsClean1-1-900x667.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cA few weeks ago, I was chatting with my mother over the phone when she said, \u2018Doesn\u2019t it bother you that Mel won\u2019t keep a cleaner house?\u2019 It was a Saturday. I was working on the dishes. I honestly didn\u2019t know what to say. My mother didn\u2019t say it in an antagonist way or anything. It was more out of curiosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019d obviously had noticed our home wasn\u2019t all that tidy. Not that it was only Mel\u2019s job to clean it. I see our marriage as a partnership, so cleaning is as much my responsibility as it is hers. I will admit, though, there is often kid clutter, dishes in the sink, and half-finished art projects on the counters. I will also admit, it isn\u2019t as clean as my mother\u2019s home, but that doesn\u2019t bother me. In fact, I don\u2019t really think about it at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I didn\u2019t really know how to respond to my mother, so I floundered. I never really know what to say in moments like this. But thinking back, I believe my mother\u2019s perception of our house really reflects the era she grew up in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She\u2019s part of the baby boom generation. I didn\u2019t know my father all that well, but I do remember him giving me this advice about picking a wife: \u2018Stop by her house unexpected. See how it looks in there. You can tell a lot about a woman by how she keeps her house.\u2019 I think my mother\u2019s concern over a clean house has a lot to do with her trying to meet the expectations of her youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the thing is, unlike my father, I didn\u2019t really think about a clean house when I married my wife. I thought about how I liked what she had to say. I thought about how she made me feel. I thought about how she smiled a lot. I liked that. I thought about how she was sweet and thoughtful, and how she seemed like the kind of mother I\u2019d want for my children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a few moments of struggling to find the right words, I finally said, \u2018I didn\u2019t get into this marriage for a clean house. I got into it because she seemed like someone I could spend my life with.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I put some dishes in the washer. Eventually mom said. \u2018Well\u2026 that probably is more important than a clean house.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n