avatarMichael Thacker

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Abstract

id spotless.</p><p id="036a">My mum liked her home to be comfortable. She believed in clean, but ‘lived in.’ She wasn’t ever 100% tidy, she was <i>comfortably tidy. </i>Some days I would come home from school and every room in the house would be a little messy. However, if my mum had spent all day tidying up, she’d never have had a life.</p><p id="8f57">When my own children were young, my home was never ‘spotless’, and some professionals often complained that<b> I wasn’t tidy or clean enough.</b></p><p id="6e46">Bringing up six children was really hard, I did not have time to clean and tidy all day! Besides,</p><p id="3d1b" type="7">being too tidy and stressing yourself out over it in front of children teaches them that being messy is wrong!</p><p id="626e">If children grow up believing that cleaning is the only way to live, then they will grow up anxious about every little mess they make.</p><p id="a244" type="7">Parents should feel free to spend more time with their children because children need them more than housework needs them.</p><p id="04c5">My children are grown up today, but I still don’t do 100% tidy. I have laundry in my lounge to put away, and baskets of dirty clothes to wash, and everything is out of place,</p><p id="8f70"><b>But, I will clean it up in my own time.</b></p><p id="935a">We<i> </i>need to drop the concept of spotless because it causes people more stress than it is worth. Of course, we do need to clean and tidy our homes every now and then, in order to create a healthy home.</p><p id="9681">However, being too clean and tidy can be unhealthy; and in today’s world, do you really want to spend the rest of your life absorbed in chores?</p><p id="ac8b"><b>Life is for living, so please go away if you want spotless. You won’t get it at my house!</b></p><p id="a3e5">You might like to re

Options

ad the following:</p><div id="f87f" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/a-memory-never-forgotten-d92b5dfb2afa"> <div> <div> <h2>A Memory Never Forgotten.</h2> <div><h3>Writing: In The Beginning</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*jGTV-_KNxfyyAbfq)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="d4cf" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/swing-swing-swing-40ef21118106"> <div> <div> <h2>Swing! Swing! Swing!</h2> <div><h3>About a little boy who had an obsession with the swings, yet left some golden moments in my heart to treasure forever.</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*d_Y5f3Tn1IJuAAoN)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="d68e" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/do-you-always-feel-like-a-packhorse-after-a-holiday-cbb1e481b853"> <div> <div> <h2>Do You Always Feel Like a Packhorse After a Holiday?</h2> <div><h3>I always end up with more bags than I went with!</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*8TtnVjKGWer24Tx4)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

POETRY

America, I’m Watching You

Our children have eyes, and they are watching.

Photo by Jana Shnipelson on Unsplash

I woke up this morning with not a care in the world

Of course, you still call me baby, but that’s ok

We plan our day, much like most days, especially these days

I have breakfast and have some time to play

Now time do my schooling, in this most unconventional way

Lunchtime, one of my favorite times

Will we have the little meatballs or the chicken dinosaurs?

Back to my desk, or rather the kitchen table for more school

You try to keep your patience, but this is new for you too

It’s been a hard couple of months, I know we are both trying

We are both scared about the other option, so this will have to do for now

This part of the day is done, the rest of the family will be home soon

“Dinner time everyone” and the chaos ensues

“Who is having the pizza, who is having the chicken sticks, and what is that”?

Time for some TV and a bath

A shower in my case, since I am bigger now

Watching my favorite shows, not for the first time, but not quite the tenth

I have my toys with me, my dog, and of course you

You tell me it will be a special night, where I can stay up just a little later

It’s time for me to know more about the “adult” world that I will someday live

Share politics with me, to understand the process, and be proud of where we live

I settle on the sofa, you next to me in the big chair

Two men walk onto the stage, but there are no hands shaken

That’s OK, it’s to keep each other safe, right?

90 minutes total the man says, OK I can watch this

Just the length of my favorite show and that always makes me laugh

I try not to interrupt, but I don’t understand

The man on the left is screaming, ranting, and seems unsure of his thoughts

The man on the right, shaking his head a lot, and looking dumbfounded at what the other man is saying

The words become tense, distasteful, and just mean

You tell me it is the way that it is, I hear that on the TV screen too!

We watch more, you muttering under your breath

“What is happening here,” I ask myself?

This is not how it looked in the books at school

The man in the middle, when we see him, seems flabbergasted and sort of scared

Much like I do when I can’t get the pieces put back together when you tell me not to take it apart

OK, it’s over now, but I’m not sure what I just saw?

Is this how it works? How it’s supposed to work? How it is?

All this noise is part of the process? Did I miss the questions, more importantly, were there supposed to be answers?

Now there are other people on the stage, but no one seems happy and there is little applause

I guess it’s over now, and their task is done

Is this how it all works? How you decide and I will someday?

Sort of like at the playground when I was younger and we couldn’t decide who was to be on which swing?

We don’t do that anymore though, since we are all older now

Yet, when I get older, I will have to play this game again?

Fight over the “swing”, the one that you want to be on, as do I?

I don’t like this game, seems that there should be a better way

Maybe just pick better people to play, better people

You say that I am old enough to see the world through your eyes

Is this really what I have waited to see?

In Closing

After watching the debates last night I came up with this poem.

I had slept on my thoughts overnight, thinking about the many parents I was hearing about during the after shows who were calling in, tweeting, and emailing talking about what their children had seen.

Those parents thought that they were doing the right thing by letting their now older children watch the process. Why not, it will be “their” process someday too. Yet what they shared, they may have not wanted their children to see.

I’m not a parent, so I am not sure, but I do know what I saw. You did too!

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About Michael

Michael Thacker is a not so young adult blogger, aspiring writer, and sometimes seller of real estate.

Michael tweets a LOT on Twitter. Posts every once in a while on Facebook. Occasionally lets his opinions be known to friends, family, and anyone else that will listen.

Connect with Michael

You can follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MichaelThackerI.

If you want to connect on Facebook, the best place is https://www.facebook.com/RMichaelThacker/

Poem
Poetry
Politics
Presidential Debates
Children
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