good son forgets messy house

My son’s 3-week-old son is a good baby, but he is still an infant with a 22-month-old sister. Momma is overwhelmed with two babies, housekeeping and meal preparations.
Recently she said, my son asked her, “Why don’t you keep this house clean? My mom kept the house clean all the time.” His memory is a bit faulty.
His father wearied of the children’s clutter just as much as my son does now. Occasionally on Sunday afternoon hubby would take a broom upstairs to the back bedroom and start sweeping. Toys, clothes, sneakers, game pieces, homework assignments whirled before him. By the time he started sweeping down the stairs he was pushing trash and dirt – everything else had been put away.
Downstairs my husband swept the dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Once everything was restored to order, he sighed happily went to the kitchen and popped a couple gallons of popcorn to begin a new mess.
I told my son about the week I stayed home from Bible Study because, “The house is a mess. I have to to get it cleaned up.”
When he was 8, our last child and only daughter was born. It was the very beginning of the gardening and canning season, school was out and all her brothers were home. I had my hands full just making it through each day. I didn’t realize how poorly I was just doing until my husband said, “The family reunion is Sunday. We’re going. I want something to eat besides scrambled eggs.”
We went to the reunion. He ate pot roast, ham, meat loaf and tuna surprise. I showed off the new baby and quit making eggs for supper.
When his sister was 3-weeks-old, we were expecting company early one evening. My husband said, “We need to clean up before they get her. There are diapers everywhere.”
I guess my son, the new father was too young to remember those days, but he should have remembered our house cleaning routine when he was in grade school. I would say, “Okay, time to clean up. You pick up 75 things, you take care of 60 and you 50. And putting away the building blocks only counts for five things.” (I added that clause after my second son counted each piece as he dropped Tinker Toys back into the can while the rest of us took dishes to the kitchen and pulled out shoe and socks from under the couch.) The young father had forgotten.
“Ahh, come on,” I said. “surely you remember coming home from college and vegging out with your brother over Christmas break, watching one movie after another while you ate everything in sight.”
After several movies the room was a wreck and they wanted more movies. I told them, “sure when this place is cleaned up.” They moved for the first time that day, shaking crumbs out of the blankets and pillows, gathering up their trash, vacuuming and returning dishes to the kitchen.
Nope, he didn’t remember that, but he did remember that his mother kept an immaculate house. He is such a good son.