The Hamster Wheel
Sometimes, okay virtually all the time, as a mom you wonder if you are really getting anything done. Today for example, I spent a good portion of the day making valentine cut out cookies with my son to frost for his preschool party tomorrow. There was measuring, mixing, chilling dough, rolling out, cutting, and then baking. Then I left for the evening and had forgotten to put the lid on the container of cookies. I forgot my home with it's boys is something akin to yellowstone with it's bears. You must hang your food safely from a tree if you don't want it getting eaten. So at the end of the day, I have no snack for tomorrow and a day gone with laundry undone and a house uncleaned.
This can be so frustrating, because it happens all the time. You spend 12 hours doing laundry and then turn around to do the dishes and someone has made 17 more loads of laundry while you weren't looking. You mop the floors, polishing them until they sparkle. This immediately causes a rain storm to break out releasing all manner of mud in your backyard through which suddenly 3 clunky pairs of boots and a set of dog prints must tromp and deposit on your freshly polished floor.
If you have boys in the house and you clean the bathroom, you want to do it at night, then you know the clean will have it's best chance of lasting more than 20 minutes. There is something about white sparkling porcelain that brings out the wild in wee-wee, nothing triggers a last-minute-I-can-barely-hold-it-here-it-comes-everywhere potty episode like a freshly cleaned toilet.
All this can make one wonder. We question ourselves as mothers. Are we doing a good job? Are we doing anything? If someone were to look at our house they would probably guess no. But I think the trap we fall into is being too hard on ourselves. This small children time is incredibly chaotic. It's hard, it's messy, sometimes its downright scary. The mysterious pastes we find on the floor, the goo that it stuck to a chair, that brown stuff on the side of the door - all these are not problems normal people deal with. But we are no normal people. We are superheros masquerading as mere mothers. We are shaping the future, with our love, our values and our dedication.
Being there for our kids takes up so much time that often there is not much left to get stuff done, but I wouldn't have it any other way. When I get discouraged by looking around my house I can look instead at the sweet faces of my contented children and know that it's worth it. It's worth running in circles all day and still feeling behind. It's worth the sacrifice and the less than perfect house. It's worth not having anything I can point to and feel accomplished. I look at my children and see they are not perfect but they are loved and they love me. That is more valuable than any spotless house or completed to-do list.
Happy Valentine's Day! Cookies or no, Love never fails.
This can be so frustrating, because it happens all the time. You spend 12 hours doing laundry and then turn around to do the dishes and someone has made 17 more loads of laundry while you weren't looking. You mop the floors, polishing them until they sparkle. This immediately causes a rain storm to break out releasing all manner of mud in your backyard through which suddenly 3 clunky pairs of boots and a set of dog prints must tromp and deposit on your freshly polished floor.
If you have boys in the house and you clean the bathroom, you want to do it at night, then you know the clean will have it's best chance of lasting more than 20 minutes. There is something about white sparkling porcelain that brings out the wild in wee-wee, nothing triggers a last-minute-I-can-barely-hold-it-here-it-comes-everywhere potty episode like a freshly cleaned toilet.
All this can make one wonder. We question ourselves as mothers. Are we doing a good job? Are we doing anything? If someone were to look at our house they would probably guess no. But I think the trap we fall into is being too hard on ourselves. This small children time is incredibly chaotic. It's hard, it's messy, sometimes its downright scary. The mysterious pastes we find on the floor, the goo that it stuck to a chair, that brown stuff on the side of the door - all these are not problems normal people deal with. But we are no normal people. We are superheros masquerading as mere mothers. We are shaping the future, with our love, our values and our dedication.
Being there for our kids takes up so much time that often there is not much left to get stuff done, but I wouldn't have it any other way. When I get discouraged by looking around my house I can look instead at the sweet faces of my contented children and know that it's worth it. It's worth running in circles all day and still feeling behind. It's worth the sacrifice and the less than perfect house. It's worth not having anything I can point to and feel accomplished. I look at my children and see they are not perfect but they are loved and they love me. That is more valuable than any spotless house or completed to-do list.
Happy Valentine's Day! Cookies or no, Love never fails.
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