End of an Era

I just ended a wonderful era in my life, and by "era" I mean the last 16 months. Since just before Anna was born we have hired out the cleaning of our house, although more recently that only consisted of the deep cleaning of our bathrooms and kitchen every 3 weeks. Lately though the cleaning has not been up to par. I've tried to drop hints and point out what isn't getting done that should be getting done, but the lady that cleans our house, we feel like, has just gotten lazy and careless, very comfortable with the friendly, relaxed relationship we have when she comes over. As the quality of cleaning has continued to decline, so has our tolerance for it. So yesterday, we finally decided to just let her go.

I'm the one that had to tell her on the phone (which, c'mon is a huge feat for this phone-a-phobic) and I am still keyed up about it. She could tell, as well I knew, that this was not so much a "letting go" as it was just a flat-out firing. I did use the excuse that we are tightening up our budget and that it's time for us to take back over our own cleaning - both of which are true and have been on our radar for several months. So Tuesday when I got home and saw the same sticky spots on the kitchen floor and the same grime and urine on 2 of our 3 toilets (memo to Josh - work on Noah's aim), I'd had enough. I just couldn't let it go again, so I let her know things were not cleaned right and asked her to come back to finish or let me pay less next time to make up the difference. She offered an excuse of not feeling right that morning and said she would call in the afternoon about coming by to finish. Being the on-time kinda girl I am, when she called at 4:30 I was tired of waiting on her and just plain had had enough of being disappointed, on top of being irritated by not getting what I was paying for! So I fired her - I mean, let her go.

And I guess my only point right now is this.... I am still just so keyed up about it. It is just not comfortable having to tell someone they did something wrong and then having to let them go as a result, even more so because I know how the lady needs the money. We are completely within our rights and reason to expect to get what we paid for, but I still feel so ick over the whole thing.

Conflict is the pits. And that's my rant and moan for the day.