The ironing got me giggling. My mom ironed everything! I'm talking clothes, pillowcases, sheets, even my dad's handerchiefs! I don't iron anything. If I take it out of the dryer warm and hang it up, why iron? I may take an iron to a collar or special dress now and then but very seldom. My mom was also a June Cleaver clone - you know her? Beaver's mom? Well, Monday is wash day, Tuesday is ironing, Wednesday is breadbaking...etc ad nauseam. Dust, vacumn, scrub bathrooms and kitchen, lysol on doorknobs and telephones....

I was a pretty relaxed mom - I was strict (the meanest mom on the block in fact ) but housework could wait because I would rather play with my kids. They were allowed to make messes and put crawdads in the bathtub. We grew maggots on hamburger. We made tents in the livingroom. We went camping. I tried to make them feel that they were the most wonderful kids in the world. I never bailed them out when they screwed something up or did something wrong. I hope they remember things like that.

I guess I have gone out of my way to take the good but to be as opposite as possible.