I had my first manicure in many, many months yesterday. It was scheduled into my diary between a business breakfast and client presentation. The manicurist came to my workplace and performed her magic on a group of us. It was the only way that half the women in my workplace could spare the time.
Anticipating harsh judgment, the evening before was devoted to getting my nails in shape for the manicure: filing my nails and moisturising my hands to the point where they could best be described as moist. Ridiculous. I spent more time making my hands look pretty than I did getting my nails painted.
I used to do the same before our cleaner arrived. I would whip into a frenzy and tidy up, including cleaning toilets, before he arrived so that he didn’t think we were messy. The cleaner must have looked forward to cleaning our home.
My dentist says the same thing. A furious clean before the appointment always elicits the same response: “you have the cleanest teeth of any of my patients”. So why was I paying $300 for a teeth clean then?
I know I’m not alone in this. In fact I can hear you nodding along. My girlfriends have similar stories of time wasting. And none of us can spare the time for it quite frankly.
We are an army of time-poor, but proud women who engage others to do the work that we believe we have no time to do, but do it anyway before they have to. It’s as crazy as that last sentence.
So why do we do it? I actually do not have the time to do the job properly myself. I can’t give my teeth a professional clean, can’t clean my house during a mad evening dash as well as a cleaner who lifts sofas and rugs can, and I can’t beautify my nails. The people we engage for these services know that we are time-poor or just incapable and are grateful for the opportunity. But something inside me wants to show them that I am totally in control of every situation, including the bathroom that my teenage sons use (shudder). So I would run around picking up towels and wiping toothpaste off the basin.
After years of that sort of stress I gave up on the cleaner one day and decided that I could do it myself. I didn’t have one night a week that I could devote to pre-cleaning so I sacked the cleaner. It also explains why I rarely have manicures.
Do you do this to yourself too? What can we do to break this insane cycle?