When did Monday cease to be a traditional day to do the washing? I only remark upon this because I almost never do washing on a Monday.

The only person to have a Monday wash day was my paternal grandmother who was both religious and someone who had worked for others as a domestic servant before she married in her early 30’s. Her day for minor childcare of me was Wednesday when the washing pile had metamorphised from dirty linens to an ironing pile. After school I was permitted to iron cotton handkerchiefs and tea towels. I can’t say I hated it because it is really hard to hate something quite so dull.  On reflection I think my grandmother gave me the really dull tasks in the hope that I would ask for more stimulating domestic trivia. Instead I learnt that in life there are a lot of dull tasks and they are to be endured but are not to be trusted to lead necessarily to anything more interesting. My grandmother seemed to take a quiet satisfaction in her tasks being achieved. What do I know? She could have hated every moment of the domestic drudge. Why didn’t she just cut loose on a Wednesday and enjoy time with her grandchild?

My maternal grandmother was both busy and flighty in equal measure. My paternal grandmother did not approve. I don’t remember her ever being tied to a domestic routine. She ran a pub and a taxi business. She almost certainly had ‘staff’. Women who came in from the village and kept the pub and the living quarters looking as fresh as a field of daisies.

Domestica passes down through the female line. So my mum, reluctantly and erratically but effectively did the housework when I was child.  No Washday Mondays for her.

Which leads directly to my own lack of domestic rigour and a Washday Monday being so unusual it is worthy of a blog.

Now I am a similar age to both of my grandmothers when they were doing minimal care of me. I realise that my domestic attitude is a curious blend of both. There is no routine, I have no problem with enduring the dull tasks but there is an unstated satisfaction when domestica has been conquered.

I wonder what domestic style I will pass on to my granddaughters.

I always take time out for them, perhaps they will believe a fairy does it.