Dear Mom, as an adult in lockdown I now realise what I was like as a teenager – and I’m truly sorry for all the washing

Sheets do smell nicer when they've been out drying on the line for the day. That's a fact.

My name is Cassie, I'm 33 years old and only now have I realised how annoying I was to live with in my teens. I grew up in a house with my mom and sister, just the three of us. When my mom wasn't at work, she was cleaning, whether it was the dishes or my clothes, that's what consumed all of her time – and I now know why. It seems like all I have been doing since this lockdown started is cleaning! In my house, the laundry is  like The Lord of The Rings... it never ends. Ever. And confuses me all the time. I'm pretty sure I only wear one top a day, but judging by my washing you would swear I changed it at least 17 times. And clean socks, well those things are like shooting stars. You see them once and if you missed them, tough luck, they're gone. Then there's the tidying. I have noticed that I leave things everywhere: bras in the kitchen, hot sauce in the living room, the TV remote in the garden. And shoes, I leave those everywhere too. It turns out that the Hoover isn't just there for the laugh, it actually saves you a lot of time sweeping. Sheets do smell nicer when they've been out drying on the line for the day. That's a fact. Fake tan stains white clothes. Ashes in the fireplace need to be cleaned, who would have thought?! Mopping is important. As a kid, I just thought my mom loved keeping me out of the kitchen and blaming it on "the newly washed floors". Another bone of contention in our household growing up was not coming down for dinner on time. Now I get it. Dinner gets cold. Dinner isn't as nice when it's cold. It wasn't cooked to be eaten cold. I used to hear my mom call me for dinner and I would rock down around 20 minutes later. Now, if anyone did that to me I would say the exact same thing to say to them that my mom did to me: "Don't worry, I've nothing else to do other than wait around for you." And don't even get me started on tea bags in the sink. I'm ashamed. I've been doing it so long, and I wholeheartedly apologise to anyone in my life who has had to pick one of those cold soggy things up out of the sink with their hands and put it into the bin. Sorry. Mostly to you Mom.