Underappreciated

A few weeks ago, I started a post with a familiar lyric from the song Big Yellow Taxi - "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got till it's gone." I'm feeling that again.

My sister is going away on placement and my parents have gone away to help her settle in. And being at home by myself has really shocked me as to how much my mother in particular does each day. Everyday when I come home, there is food cooked and clean washing waiting for me to put away. When I get up in the morning, the sink is mysteriously clear of the dirty dishes for the previous night. Somewhere in the midst of the hustle and bustle of four of us trying to leave the house each morning, the fish gets fed, the dog gets fed, the washing is put on, the rubbish is emptied... At the moment, I have to do it all myself, and it's really opened up my eyes to how much work running a house can be - and there aren't even any other people there to feed at the moment!

Apart from the fact that I rarely thank my mother, or indeed, either of my parents for the work they do, it's made me realise how ungrateful I can be. Mum spends putting the washing on, hanging it up, taking it down, folding it, ironing the things that require it... and then I'm too lazy to hang it up or put it in the right drawer, so it gets tossed onto the end of the bed, where it will almost certainly fall onto the floor. What appreciation that shows for my mother's labour!

I think it's time to clean up my act, as well as cleaning up my room :)