There’s a stream that runs alongside our home, just on the other side of the wooden fence we never weatherstripped and thus, the wooden fence that is falling apart one pathetic slat at a time.
It’s not really a stream though.
It’s a runoff water channel that is, at times, bone dry but more often than not has some amount of water flow, especially in super soggy springtime. For my daughters, this runoff non-stream stream is as good as a river; the Seine without the ornate bridges, the Nile without a single crocodile, the mighty Mississippi very much with the mud.
Mud. So. much. mud. Tis the season of mud.
Early spring 2015 is being defined, and quite literally marked, by the mud of our stream. But I’m not one to sweat the small stuff or be bothered by the small muddy footprints on the kitchen’s tile floor making a real life treasure map in reverse, from the chest of glittering gold that is unstructured and unsupervised outdoor playtime to the cold white porcelain of the guest bathroom tub. This is the meeting point of outside and inside, a loosely defined point unfortunately separated by 25 feet. So yeah, there’s cleaning to be done.
Having been the CDO — Chief Domestic Officer — since their births, but even more emphatically so since choosing to become the at-home parent in the summer of 2008, my daughters recognize that dad is the one in charge of and with the most desire to clean; their clothes, their flip-flops, their dishes, and the tile floor of their treasure map. This never once felt strange to me, being very much my mother’s son, and so my girls are being raised with it not feeling strange to them either, to see dads cleaning, and to know that the man of this particular house is the one who voluntarily and, dare I say, gleefully, handles the cleaning.
I try to be a positive role model for not only breaking traditional gender stereotypes but also as a domestic god among mere cleaning mortals, with the hope that some of my actions to keep a clean home will rub off on my kids. Some day. Please, lordy lord, some day soon.
But even a god needs his tools (see Poseidon with his rad trident, and Zeus with that nifty lightning bolt thingie). Keeping the tile floor of the kitchen, my favorite room in the house, clean is a cinch with the Swiffer Wet Jet. Even Mississippi River quality mud is no match for the contents of the Swiffer Big Green Box, with an easy to use and assemble Wet Jet that has my kitchen glimmering in the mid-afternoon sun. And because the Wet Jet cleans muddy surfaces in seconds — the Swiffer Effect — spraying its powerful cleaning solution a good 12 inches out in front of my scrubbing, very much paving the way to cleanliness, I don’t even mind Swiffering the floor repeatedly as my scatterbrained kids decide to return to their stream again and again after being cleaned up in the tub…again and again.
Really, I don’t mind this at all. Nope. Not. one. bit.
[Ahem]
I’m far from the only Chief Domestic Offer in the world these days — our numbers are growing! There are dads cleaning all over the place in 2015! Check out the new #SwifferDad commercial featuring more dads down with the cleaner side of home life, including a couple of my dad blogging pals, Beau Coffron and Doyin Richards…and some other dudes I don’t know at all.
As Anthony Anderson of Black-ish says so beautifully in this behind the scenes #SwifferDad broll video, “the roles have not really reversed, the roles have evolved.” Beautifully put, sir.
I was selected to review these Swiffer products as a member of Clever Girls; the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
As part of this gig, I was fortunate enough to be able to hand-deliver a Swiffer Big Green Box to my friend, and fellow #SwifferDad and Chief Domestic Officer, Chris Bernholdt of DadnCharge.com. Word has it, his kitchen floor is also shiny and clean, and ready for his kids’ next playdate.
The Swiffer Wet Jet starter kit retails for $21.99, a small price to pay to have your floors clean in minutes, giving you more time to be a dad. That’s what life is like as a domestic god #SwifferDad. Do it.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
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