Today as I was tidying the house and chatting away with my two-year-old dear son (DS). I mentioned a moment-invented reasoning behind cleaning: we are preparing for guests. I thought it was a great reason for both keeping a house clean and relieving the task of a “chore” feeling. Little did I know I was speaking aloud my intuition, which often and interestingly proves to be right on track.

A thousand thanks to the FLY Lady, I have learned to clean a multitude of areas efficiently and expediently. So I set the toys and games in order, made water glasses and fruit available within easy reach, and swish-swiped the bathroom thoroughly before starting the laundry. After wiping as many surfaces as I could think of that attract little fingerprints, sweeping, then vacuuming, I closed the doors to all rooms except the ones I wanted guests to enter, using to my advantage the thinking that an open door is an invitation. Finally, I scented my home using boiled spices on the stove top: a wonderful potpourri of pumpkin pie, sweet potato pudding, butternut squash souffle, cinnamon, sugar, and cloves. (If we could only eat aromas!)

On a warm sunny day in the middle of Autumn, we didn’t want to pass up time spent outside, so out we went. We tended our container garden, marveled at the new flowers blooming on the mums, and laughed together when watering the plants. DS rode his bike for a bit and we played Pretend.

Then it began.

I counted them as they arrived. One… two… four… seven. Seven children, from ages 2 to 15 swarmed my small front yard, asking questions, telling stories, starting games, and generally just being there. Eventually the sun touched the horizon, and after some pingponging on my part between indoors and outdoors, everyone migrated into my home for a fun-filled evening of games, snacks, chatting, and boisterous camaraderie.

Sometime between handing someone a glass of water and grabbing a game from a shelf to share, I nostalgically remembered the reason I gave DS for cleaning our home just two hours earlier: we are preparing for guests. Was it premonition? A mother’s intuition? I secretly think it was both. But mostly, I made the connection between the sudden visit of three homes’ worth of children and keeping a house tidy in anticipation for having guests experience a part of our home. There were eight guests in my home that evening, and I lovingly include my DS. Everything was wonderfully seamless and organized among the children, and everyone was happy.

That experience solidified the wisdom I received a while back from Naomi Aldort in her book, Raising Our Children, Raising Ourselves, to treat our own children as guests in our homes. Modeling treating others with comfort, kindness, and service gives way to much more than just having a clean home in the end, and is much more powerful than simply learning a circumstantial lesson. Over time, I have realized that the merry challenge of treating my child as a guest in my own home has rounded out my character, naturally making me a much better hostess, even for “grown ups,” a more understanding caregiver, a more capable mother, and a better friend, and an excellent guest for others to have over, not to mention a surprisingly neater member of the family. And I notice this most at impromptu times like this, when everything hits at once. It is certainly a good feeling to know that I was prepared.

Now, on to the car windows I need to roll up while it’s pouring down rain tonight…