Who loves ironing??

Two days ago a friend (KB) who had a 100% no-ironing policy sent a message on her Facebook page that she was so excited about a friend coming to visit this weekend, she ironed the pillowcases for the guest bed!!! It seemed a wonderful distraction from the effort of paddling to achieve my other meaningful activities, and write a light-hearted blog. I’ve written about ironing before, and the responding conversations are usually quite strong, either supporting my iron-almost-everything policy vs the iron-almost-nothing policy of some others!

Those of you who’ve been following this blog for a while know I love to have things ironed. People with dementia eventually have to give up ironing as it becomes dangerous. I gave it up ages ago, partly because I was burning myself too often, and partly because I could hand it over to someone else. Occasionally I don’t have ironed pillowcases, and I always think of my friend KB, and feel quite proud of myself for not ironing them! How crazy is that, feeling proud of not ironing?! It also makes me feel slightly nauseous!! As a ‘ex neat freak’ (!!!???), if anyone out there has the same genetic disposition for neatness, you will understand.

Of course, when I get a bit stressed about things, I resort back to the things that helped me with stress, which was cleaning, being neat, and cooking as it was a strategy I used when I was young to cope with the traumas surrounding me. It was also a way of getting praise, something that was not offered often. Children crave praise and positive feedback, and cleaning was one way I could be assured of getting it. Now, with the bloody paddling getting so hard, I’ve been resorting back to this old habit, but I now have to rely on others to help me achieve it.  I let many of my standards go years ago to improve my ‘health’, and had a fridge magnet that said; ‘Only boring women have immaculate homes”. I try not to be too boring, but having ironed clothes and pillowslips is like a luxury for me, not something that causes me any stress at all!!