She won't be hosting

So I’m just wondering if my 18-year-old is gonna grow out of some of this. Cause I’m telling ya right now, if she doesn’t, I won’t be staying at her house very often in the future. She’s a very sweet girl and has a huge heart but she’s darn right messy and what’s worse, has absolutely no awareness of it. I realize she’s officially a “college kid” and college kids can be gross but it’s been that way all through high school too. Whether it’s her car or her bedroom, or whatever room in the house she just spent time in, there’s a mess.

And it’s like she doesn’t even notice it. Except for when I clean it and then she notices. How do you not see 84 water bottles, two bags of leftover fast food and 128 wadded up receipts all over your car? Or at least smell it, for crying out loud. How she sees out of the windshield full of bird poop is beyond me? Automatic car washes take less than 5 minutes to get through, have multiple trash cans on site to clean out your car AND they have $0.25 vacuums ready suck out all those receipts so voila, the car is shiny and fresh!

I know I’ve complained about her room before over the years, but I guess I thought she’d grow out of it. Like turn 18 and suddenly think, “Hey, I’m going to be an adult now and organize my belongings and dust them and vacuum once in a while.” “I will hang my shirts up and put my laundry away in a timely manner.” Or.....maybe I’ll never make my bed unless I see a spider and have to, and I’ll leave so many clothes lying around that I no longer know which ones are clean or which ones are dirty. Brain damage!

But bless her heart, she really does try and help out now that she’s in college, like making dinner for her little sister or baking treats now and then but boy, do I pay for that. Her idea of a clean kitchen and my idea of a clean kitchen are slightly different, to say the least. Did she notice the burnt spaghetti noodles on the stove top or all the coconut shavings on the floor, is that skill still evolving from childhood? And if I ask if she cleaned and she responds that she did, that means there’s a very high chance I will not be able to open the dishwasher as it is packed to the gills with every possible kitchen object, which means not one single item will get 100% clean. And it also guarantees there will be an unrinsed dishrag in the sink loaded with crumbs and whatnot from the counters. Yum!

Love that girl so much and she has so many things going for her but just not her cleaning skills. I guess I’m thankful she keeps herself clean, could be worse I suppose and I do hope it improves with time and maybe home ownership, but as of now, I’m sorry to say that I have already decided that we probably won’t be asking her to host any Thanksgiving dinners in the future. Might have to save those for my middle daughter.