Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.

Phyllis Diller (1917–2012) built her comic persona around domestic chaos, suburban expectations, and the pressures placed on wives and mothers in mid‑20th‑century America. In her stand-up and humorous writing, she frequently mocked the ideal of the immaculate home, turning everyday housekeeping into a source of absurdity and social critique. This line belongs to that tradition: it frames childrearing as an ongoing, messy process that makes “perfect” cleanliness feel futile. The comparison to shoveling snow evokes a familiar, repetitive chore—especially in American life—underscoring how quickly order is undone when children are still actively growing and living in the house.

The joke hinges on a practical truth: some tasks are inherently temporary because the conditions that create the mess are still ongoing. By likening housecleaning during childrearing to shoveling before a snowfall ends, Diller suggests that striving for a spotless home while children are active is a losing battle—and that the expectation itself is unreasonable. Beyond humor, the line offers permission to relax perfectionism and to prioritize living over constant maintenance. It also gently critiques cultural standards that equate a woman’s competence with domestic order, reframing “mess” as a normal byproduct of growth, activity, and family life rather than a moral failure.