Welcome to another edition of “the unedited truth about motherhood”.
Do you ever feel like it’s impossible to get everything done. You spend all day scrubbing the kitchen until it sparkles only to find that the children have completely destroyed the living room while you were busy cleaning?
Or maybe you found nifty ways to entertain them while you cleaned up and by the end of the day you just feel like you are going to lose your mind despite the clean home and happy kids.
I think we’ve all been there, or if you are like me you just live there. Somewhere in between a messy house, happy kids and sanity, never quite achieving all of them in one day.
It seems like each day we are given a choice. We could choose to clean our home from top to bottom and feel crazy by the end of the day and have cranky kids OR we could play dollies and trains for 24 hours straight, have the happiest kids in town but a messy house (and again mama’s sanity would be just out of reach).
Balance eludes me most days, or maybe I’m just finding that our sweet-spot looks a bit different than I imagined. Instead of a perfectly clean home, pristine and constantly giggling children and a mom with perfect clothes and hair we sit in rooms that show evidence of playful times with the kids. My kids tantrum and they laugh and it all mixes together into a noisy yet happy chaos that envelopes our home. And I’m stuck somewhere between a laugh and a cry most days. Unsure if I should be chuckling at my child’s latest antics or groaning.
Oh motherhood and the choices it brings us. Not always the choices we are looking for, but there’s usually something good in there if you take the time to choose carefully.
So…be honest. Which would you choose if you could only choose two? Or are you stuck somewhere in the middle like me?
Read more unedited truths about motherhood here.
Angela says
I would choose sanity and kids happiness. Sometimes even both of those can be hard to achieve. However it seems trying for that goal helps the house be cleaner. I used to fret over everything not being perfect and realized I was killing my sanity and fretting over aclean house, that before it was fully clean was getting right back a mess. That would get me irritated and then the kids would also get irritated. Then I learned to lay back more and focus on the things that truly matter. Kids that feel loved and more important than a clean house. The LORD showed me that the inside of my cup was more important than the outside. Meaning clean up my inside and then if there is time after making sure we’re emotionally sound as a family we then can spend time even cleaning together, making wonderful times as a family goofing while cleaning. Those times are special too :-)
Ashley says
I’ve had to change my definition of “clean” in order to come a little closer to keeping my sanity. I tidy up throughout the day (often with my 3 year old “helping”) plus aim to REALLY clean one other room of the house which is usually done in the morning so that we have the rest of the day to play and for me to do some homework. Granted nothing stays clean for long but it helps me feel better (and keeps the house from becoming a TOTAL disaster)!!