(Once when Mark was a toddler and I was complaining to my mom about how...active...he was, she said, "I think you just want him to sit in a corner and be quiet." Well, yes. Why can't they all three just do that? And not make any messes?)
Lately I've divided up bathroom cleaning jobs. I have a chart and we rotate through each week. I help Mark with his job so I figure that at least two out of every four weeks the sinks will actually get clean, the mirrors will actually be free of streaks. Yesterday I was cleaning the sinks in my children's bathroom.
Ew.
Their aim with toothpaste is atrocious.
Their proclivity for leaving combs and deodorant and toothbrushes and toothpaste (sans lid) strewn across the counter is...
depressing.
I could be more on top of it. I could enforce cleanup. But I don't have the time (or more importantly inclination).
So what to do? (Because while I want a spotless house in theory, do I want it enough to give up reading books or blogging? Perish the thought!)
Typically what I do, in these frustrating instances, is start thinking about "Someday".
Someday, there won't be a smattering of throw pillows all over the floor of the family room because the only reasonable thing my kids can think to do with throw pillows is...throw them.
Someday, their bathroom will be clean. And stay clean.
Someday, their bedrooms won't give me heart palpitations on a regular basis.
Someday, there won't be Fablehaven books, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and first grade readers, and Chronicles of Narnia books, and American Girl magazines and Boys' Life magazines strewn EVERYWHERE.
Someday, there won't be snippings of colored paper under Emma's desk from her multitudinous art projects.
Someday, there won't be legos on the stairs and kitchen counters and deep inside of the couch cushions because Mark seems to trail legos in his wake.
Someday, there won't be Braeden's sweatshirts left...wherever he decides to shed them.
Someday.
But then,
Someday,
I won't hear giggling and Mark and Emma trying out English accents.
I won't hear jokes and singing and "Mom! Look at this!"
Someday, I won't get kissed goodnight thirty times each by three children because they don't really want to go to bed.
Someday, I won't snuggle under a blanket on the couch each morning to read about the adventures of Ramona Quimby with Mark.
Someday, I won't see Emma's exultant face after her first day of play practice.
Someday, Braeden won't be asking me to turn off the radio "so we can just talk".
Someday, I won't be laughing at my children and their wittiness, not sure what they're quoting with their quips and lines or if they're just making it all up themselves.
Someday, I won't have anyone to sing opera with while taking pictures on photo booth.
So Someday, take you own sweet time getting here.
I am not ready for you.
(and how important is a spotless house anyway?)
3 comments:
Loved this post, Thelma. I needed to read it SO much this morning. You're fabulous.
I have been thinking this exact same way for so long. I go back and forth between frustration with the messes and try to teach my kids to clean up after themselves & being happy and content for the now, as it will go by fast.
Thanks for putting into words. It's so good to know that other people feel the same way.
My feelings of frustration are amplified when someone else comes over unexpectedly and I feel so embarrassed and wonder what they are thinking about my lack of cleanliness or teaching my kids to work.
We have quite the dilemma as mothers, don't we?! I like your solution. Enjoy your cute kids, now!
This makes me cry. I was planning my own "someday" as I swept our horribly dirty floor today. My "someday" was about the time my kids will be the ages of your kids though. They still won't put the lid on the toothpaste, huh? Darn.
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