Why familial entropy?

Based on the physical law of thermodynamics, we came to believe that the order in our household automatically decreases simultaneously with every new family member unless an almost disproportional amount of energy is opposed to it.

My (Freddies’) single-household already turned into a slightly chaotic state when I met my husband and unfortunately I can’t even claim that I didn’t know what I was getting into. The first time I entered his student room at university, I was completely overwhelmed. “Entered” might also be the wrong term here. When he came back from his semester break, he apparently let go of every single piece of luggage right after entering the room, and since then he had simply picked all the stuff he needed out of those bags. Two weeks had passed since his return. There was not a single free spot on the floor where I could set my foot. Since we weren’t together at that time, I thought I was smart and I let a friend of mine know that I could never date a person that untidy, hoping that she would tell Karstens best friend and he would tell Karsten (and Karsten would, of course, tidy up). Karsten somehow got the message and tried his best. Still, I remember one situation where I almost felt claustrophobic in the room (by then we were living there together, in just one room) and I frantically started to clean and burst into tears. Karsten, instead of simply helping me to tidy up, felt overwhelmed with the situation too, so he thought for a minute or so, then grabbed his coat and said “I am going for a walk, so I won’t be in your way!”.

At that time, I could still threaten him with the promise that I won’t stay over unless his place is in a halfway normal condition. Well, I can’t play that card anymore. All I can do now is toss his dirty socks at him every now and then.

With the little one, tidiness has again decreased. It wasn’t that obvious at the beginning. But as soon as she started crawling around, nothing was safe anymore. And with the birth of the hobbit, we seem to have entered a new era. There are just so many tempting things to do when mama is busy with breastfeeding the little brother. Painting the walls, tearing up toilet paper rolls or neatly placing all my bras right in front of our entrance door so that any guest will get the right impression… Welcome to our family!