The Slobby McSlobbersons Have Left The Building

*I write this post with a great deal of amusement and amazement--and NO amount of meanness is intended.  I have a lot of affection for the persons named.*

I have never raised boys, but I think I can say this without much worry:  While boys are messy--and dirty, at times--girls are the biggest slobs on the face of this earth.  I am totally amazed at how slobby girls are.

In the past, we have opened our home to young men to stay with us while they attended our local university.  The first time, G was trying to stay in school for one more semester.  He was having a great deal of financial difficulties, so we offered up our basement family room for him to stay in.  He was with us for only one semester and then he took a break from school, finally completing his education a year later.  A couple of years ago we had one of K's nephew's sons here for a semester.  Both guys were absolute sweethearts and didn't really make much more work for me than I normally had--extremely low maintenance.  And then, we had a couple of young women stay with us the last two weeks...

Another nephew of K's has a daughter who just completed her 3rd year of nursing school.  She was required to come to our town for six shifts at the local hospital.  Because she was only going to need a place to sleep for six days/nights, she asked if we would let her and a friend stay in our spare room.  This was a no-brainer for me and I said 'yes' immediately.  (I figure this is the generation that will be taking care of me when I'm in my dotage, so I better be nice to them.  :D)  Two weeks ago this coming Wednesday, the girls arrived.

Let me say this, whenever someone is a guest in my home--whether it is short- or long-termed--I try my hardest to not invade their privacy.  However, there are times when I have to go into their space, and it isn't always convenient for me to let them know ahead of time.  When the guys lived here, I had to go into their rooms a couple of times, and it usually was to get towels on laundry day.  Of course, the beds were never made and the guys had some personal items spread out, but for the most part, I 'spread out' much more whenever we stay in a hotel.  Not horrifying, in the least.  The girls?  A much different story.

On Thursday, less than 24 hours after the girls descended on our house, I had to go upstairs to close the windows.  They had left the windows open and the rain had started, so I needed to go up there.  O. M. F. G!!!!!  First, there BARELY was a path for me to walk from the stairs to the window.  They had, literally, dumped everything they brought with them onto the floor and spread it out from one end to the other.  Every flat surface, every inch of floor space, was covered with their stuff.  And I'm not sure WHAT they did to the bed.  I didn't even SEE the quilt or blanket that had been on it and the top sheet was in one ball in the middle of the bed.  I didn't know anyone could cause that much destruction in that short of an amount of time.  It just blew me away--but it was fine.  If they wanted to live like that, more power to them.  ;)  (At one point, the blanket found its way onto the curtain rod--I believe they were trying to shut out the sunlight so they could sleep during the day.)

The other thing that amazed me was the condition of the bathroom after it was used.  Now, the guys weren't great about cleaning up the little hair bits after shaving, but very rarely did they make the mirror unusable--at least, not like the girls.  After the girls were done in the bathroom, there was water and face-cleaner residue from one end of the vanity top to the other.  There were spatter marks on the mirror and other things I couldn't identify.  The room was just a mess.  And this wasn't just them being inconsiderate, because there always was an attempt to clean up after themselves--they just didn't succeed very well.  On first glance, things didn't look TOO bad--they took all of their possessions with them, as well as their wet towels--but things were FAR from well.  ;)  I still have a hard time believing what they did in that bathroom.

Part of me wonders if my OCD tendencies make me see some things as horrible, but are only 'normal' in other households.  When I was a teen, my room wasn't always neat as a pin, but I NEVER came close to these two girls.  And both of my girls were slobs, but not to this extent.  So, I don't know if these two are 'normal,' or not.  However, from talking to others, I think I can say with a great bit of confidence that girls ARE the Slobby McSlobbersons of the human race.



*And, to give these wonderful, adorable, sweet, and friendly girls their due, they wrote a marvelous thank you note to K and me and gave us a gift card to a local restaurant for us allowing them to stay here.  NOT something that we expected or needed, but a wonderful gesture on their part.  Still, I can't help but wish we had a guest bathroom that they could have used instead of us all sharing the same one.  :D