Well, I must say I wasn't intimidated at all about the social worker. In fact, I think we were maybe too relaxed. Our SW showed up and I was just finishing with a few dishes and we still had a couple of loads of laundry on the couch that Ryan had just started folding. Our one remodeled room still had the pile of supplies since we have one wall left to paint. The dining room had molding laying across one side of the room with nails stickign out of it and was otherwise picked up but not looking super clean. We visited with our SW who was very sweet and informative. I, of course, made sure to aplogize for the laundry and explained to him that we're a busy family and this is just how it is at our house.
He seemed fine with that. And so did I until he went upstairs.
Yes, of course they look at every room in the house, including our bedroom that had the door shut for a reason. Our room desperately needs a good deep cleaning but it hasn't happened lately and since the weather is beautiful, it didn't happen this weekend either. Scott was adamant about showing his fish to the SW and the fish desperately need their tank cleaned. Otherwise their rooms looked like normal kid rooms - I swept up the lovely asian beetles that snuck in and the toys were mostly put away.
Of course he didn't look in the closets but he did go in the upstairs bathroom.
And not to check out our bathroom but to see that there was an additional way to get out of the house besides the stairs in case our house should catch fire. Of course, just outside the bathroom window is the roof to the porch which would allow for escape so he wanted to see that. Oh man. I didn't clean that room at all! And neither did anyone else. Hopefully he's not a major neat freak and didn't get bent out of shape when he had to step over the pants and underwear that my son had just pee'd in 5 minutes before!
And if that wasn't nail biting enough for me, he went into the basement.
Okay we live in an OLD house. The basement in much like a dungeon, not like another level to the house like much of the newer/remodeled homes around here. The basement for the most part is Ryan's domain and a place for storage. I don't clean it and certainly don't deep clean it. Yes, our SW saw all of it! Hopefully, he also understood that its not a place our children live in at all. Ryan's domain and the washer and dryer and that's about it!
We meet with the social worker at least one more time. We requested to meet outside of our home. Initially it had nothing to do with our home and everything to do with saving money by not having to pay him 50 cents per mile when we have to drive to his area to do any major shopping. Now that I think about it though, I'll be glad for him to not have to venture through my house again.
Traditionally, they do the house inspection on the 2nd visit. And he explained that when he got there. That would have allowed us another chance to get things deep cleaned a bit more. However, since we requested the 2nd visit to be at an alternative site, he had to do the inspection that day.
Good thing that part is done!
