Animals in the house...

I have always considered myself to be very house proud, and try to keep everything clean and tidy, to the point that I have some OCD issues. However, living here is a whole new meaning to bringing the outside in, as my children love to do on a daily basis. I appreciate that with animals comes dirt, however, my children have a habit of arriving in my office with animals that should be outside.

There is a place for every animal here, and that is where they should stay, however, I often turn around to see chicks, rabbits and chickens being held out for me to inspect. There is some logic there, as I often tell my children to stop screaming "mummmmmmmmmmmmmiiiiiieeeeeee" when I am trying to work. However, they see the next best thing is to simply turn up in the house with some form of animal.

My son is the worst for this, and will often appear with chicks, which need examining, cleaning, or in his world simply mothering. This leads to the chicks remaining in the house for far longer than they should, as he explains that they do want to watch Star Wars, or play with Lego. I will often turn round to find a chick sat on his lap watching the TV.

This may seem cute to the outside world, however, animals bring mess, mud and often poop in with them, therefore, doubling my workload. On top of the typical amount of dirt and grime that 2 children create, multiply this with dirty wellies and boots, makes my job far harder. Therefore, I am trying to create a no animal zone in the house, however, it doesn't appear to be working very well, as my son has just appeared with another chick, claiming it wanted to share his frosties!