Does anyone out there married with Skids (no kids of my own) ever feel exhausted before they even arrive??

Teenagers will be teenagers. I get that. But then I get Disney Daddy that rarely pays attention until it's time to leave for yet another stupid thrift store while he and SD15 go digging through the gadget section and SD12 just wanders around the store. Then we have to make a stop at Fleet Farm while Daddy spends hours in the cleaning section looking for the latest cleaner.

I doesn't matter that I keep a clean house..he's got to find the latest cleaner and try it out. This place isn't clean until it's HIS clean.

The way he goes at it is absolutely ridiculous..for as long as it lasts..and then the cleaning solution along with the cleaning supply he used with it...well that all lays in a corner...or rather wherever he's done with it..most of the time the bucket in the middle of the floor and the cleaning gadget against the dining room wall.

Drives me nuts!!

It's kind of like toys to be honest..seriously and how weird.

Clutter doesn't bother them and they'll trash a place in a matter of hours...but let's test out the new cleaning supplies and see if they can get the floors any cleaner than they already are.

Last time my hubby got inventive, he decided he was going to make all the wood in our house shine "like in the commercials"..sprayed the stuff on the wood..and the floors were so slippery from the overspray that..well you know the rest.

Then it's to the grocery store where they want stupid expensive tv dinners that aren't eaten, big jugs of Green Tea that one glass is drank out of, etc. It's a two hour trip from hell where I have to say, "No..we don't need that.." and "No..you're not getting banana popsicles since last time I found the wrappers under the couch", etc.

I realize it's all about having skids (and teenage skids at that), but I'm tired of being on my best behavior all the time when I'd really love to either scream or knock some heads together. I'm only the SM though so I have to be on my again, best behavior..which is total BS. Hubby told me long ago that I discipline wrong and the kids need a friend more than a Mom as they already have one of those that yells all the time..

So..I spend the entire weekend/week (when we have them that long), picking wet towels off their beds and off the bathroom floor, doing daily loads of laundry, doing the dishes they've dirtied daily, and not only avoiding stumbling all over their crap..but trying to find counter space to even set things down.

I'm not kidding when I say that the place is like a war zone in less than two days.

I've discussed this with hubby asking him to please please PLEASE ask the kids not to make such a mess and his reply is, "We'll try not to..but you know it's going to happen.."

I think of it this way...the house is clean when they get here. What happens after that isn't my problem as I spend most of my time up in our bedroom either reading a good book I can escape into or watching a favorite comedy as I can't stand the mess and only go down into the war zone when I have to.

Had I been able to have a few kids of my own..I'm sure they'd want to visit on separate weekends as they wouldn't be able to stand the mess..nor my hubbies lack of control over his kids. I guess, had I been a REAL Mom..I'd have had higher expectations of my kids.