Every parent has heard that question, and more than once. Similarly, in this time of the Coronavirus many of us are asking “Is it safe yet?”.  

Safe yet. For what?

In our house this week the question was pertinent to cleaning the house.  It’s been eight weeks since the three smart and hardworking South Carolinian women who clean houses have been here.  In their absence, Donna and I have sporadically fired up the vacuum and Swiffered and swept.  We have, however, continued to pay the women as if they were working for us.

About two weeks ago, we were sitting on lawn chairs in our neighbor’s driveway and a question came up, “Is it too soon to ask the cleaning ladies back to work?” One neighbor said, “I can’t do it myself anymore.  They’re coming back this week.”  Another lady, married to a surgeon, said her cleaning people come every week already.  My wife, Donna, sided with the “Bring ‘em back” position.  I did not.

I offered reasons why I thought it was risky to have outsiders in our house, which we have quarantined in for two months.  Breaking the seal seems foolish to me. To my wife the question was more like “If not now, then when?” So, all week, there’s been a bit of tension here. 

Since I didn’t think Donna was going to turn the cleaners away, I went on Facebook with a post asking, “Too soon to bring back the cleaners?”

“Not in a million days,” chimed in my sister, from Illinois.  A neighbor here in Hilton Head said, “Have had mine for the last 3 weeks. They wear a mask and are as concerned about us as you are!” A photographer friend, and a psychoanalyst, said “I bought a robot vacuum cleaner. It really works and is good company.”

By the end of Tuesday, there were about 20 responses and, to be fair, it was pretty much 50-50  Certainly not enough for me to greet Donna at the breakfast table tomorrow hoping that the ‘survey’ results might persuade her to agree with my position.

Imagine my surprise when mid-morning, Donna said she was going to do some cleaning.  I thought she was just trying to relieve some stress.  When I came back from a trip to the UPS store to return items to Amazon, Donna was still vacuuming.  I asked her, “What about the cleaners tomorrow.”  She said, “Oh, I called them off.  They sent an email and wanted to know whether they should come.  And you were against it,  so I said ‘No’.”

Without even trying, I’d ‘won’ the argument.  Even though I was prepared to give in to her when I figured that wearing a mask and staying out of the house probably would have been enough protection for us.

I won the argument, but not the fight.  There was no fight. Aww, that takes all the fun out of it.

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