"Your house is messy and dusty. You need an air purifier."
"No, thank you."*
Very fortunately, I was not a part of this conversation. I think my husband is glad of it, because with all the interesting hormones raging around my body and mixing with the sleep deprivation, my response may not have been as e-hell approved as his was.
Background #1: Mr. Knitterly and I are finishing our basement. We're past the drywall mudding/sanding/priming. Unfortunately, sanding drywall is a very messy job, and despite our air filter, some of the dust has escaped the basement. So the house is a little dusty and needs to be cleaned. It's on my to-do list.
Background #2: I just had a baby (12 days ago). As adorable and tiny as she is, producing an entire human being is hard work. She may look small, but she didn't feel small, and it takes time to recover. In fact, I've been trying to do too much and have been ordered to take it easy for another week or so. So the house hasn't been vacuumed in about a month, the floors need to be washed, and yes, there is dust to deal with.
The thing about babies is, apparently everyone wants to visit after they are born. I'm okay with this, so long as the visitors understand that my house is going to be a bit of a wreck for a few more weeks. I wasn't up to cleaning much in the two weeks before she was born, and am less up to cleaning now. If friends and family want to come see Little Knit, that's fine, but only on the understanding that I'm not going to be cleaning for their visit. I am more than happy provide other niceties, though, like tea, coffee, and food.
B-i-l and his wife and their two kids descended on Saturday to visit the baby. Interestingly enough, they did very little visiting of the baby and seemed fairly disinterested in her. A fair portion of S-i-l's time was spent reining in her 2 year old and trying to make him understand that he shouldn't hit the baby on the head or shake the bassinet or throw things. It wasn't an entirely pleasant visit. B-i-l was interested in the progress of the basement and did little more than glance quickly at the Knit on his way out the door. For some reason, I felt like I was under scrutiny. I couldn't put my finger on why. Turns out, it was just one of those gut things, because later on my husband had an interesting conversation with his brother.
B-i-l felt the need to point out to Mr. Knitterly that our house is "messy and dusty" and we need an air purifier. Specifically, we need the air purifier that his wife sells through her MLM company. Also, because our house is so dirty, we can't let our baby play on the floor (because I would totally put a 12 day old infant on the floor anyway?). There was more to the conversation than that, but those were the key points. I'm not entirely sure what my husband said to put him back in line, but it was definitely a variation of "so kind of you to take an interest." I believe it was along the lines of "We appreciate your concern, but we don't need an air purifier. The house will be back to normal soon enough."
In the meantime, I've let my husband know that his brother is more than welcome to not visit anymore if he finds our home so distastefully dirty.
*("No thank you" was not the actual response. The conversation was more detailed than that.)
