The Hurricanes I Bore

There has GOT to be a better way. GOT to be.

Every night it is the same old thing. The Marshmallow gets home from work (and this time always varies) and the whole house falls apart. Both of the kids' schedules self-implode and the world revolves around Dad. Which basically means that whatever messes have been created up until this point cease to become important to anyone, dinner begins and the evening routine starts. Everyone heads downstairs to decompress and chill and then another mess gets made in the family room.

So, a huge mess in Bug's room, a huge mess in the front room upstairs and then a huge mess downstairs. I've tried getting Bugs up early and chasing her around the house to clean them all up but that only stresses me out and she leaves for school crying.

I've tried making sure that all messes upstairs are clean before heading downstairs but often they slip through my fingers and are downstairs before the messes are cleaned up and The Marshmallow (being true to his gooey center) just says he'll come up and clean it up later. He also doesn't want to make Bugs clean up messes that perhaps Tink made so he'd rather clean them up himself than make Bugs do it. Cleaning upstairs before heading down is actually the most successful cleaning "rule" I've had but the downstairs is still a humongous problem.

Or, the time passes too quickly and before anyone is aware, it's time for bed and the mess wasn't cleaned up.

I'm totally sick of it. We all know who ends up cleaning up 60% of these messes! Seriously on Wednesday afternoon it took me 45 minutes to clean up the basement. It was disgusting and I was so sick of it that I honestly just walked around with a trash can and I threw away 25% of what was on the floor. I tied it all up in a garbage bag and threw it away while Bugs was gone. She'll never know the difference.

What am I supposed to do? What do other people do? I know I shouldn't allow cartoons right up to the point that she goes to bed but this is a routine between her and her dad where they get their snuggle time. It's family time down in the living room between 7 & 9 so it's not realistically the best time for cleaning but I don't know how to get around the horrible messes that get made in that time and I resent having to clean them myself. Usually if The Marshmallow says he'll clean, he doesn't because he forgets or it's just not as important to him as it is to me.

Sorry, I'm just complaining but I'm bugged and frustrated. Other people with kids can probably give me some tips?????