After church today I ran in the house to get the children settled with the babysitter before dashing out to my afternoon commitment. As I took a look around at the level of disorganization in my home as a result of this crazy week, I cringed at the chaos I was about to leave. I had a flashback to my days of babysitting and laughed at myself for some of the judgements I made as a 20-something without children.
I can honestly remember wondering why these mothers had so many books about parenting...and their kids still acted up.
I always wondered why the pajama drawers were so messy. How hard is it to fold kids' clothes and keep the drawers neatly organized?
I never understood the mounds of laundry everywhere. Especially the stay at home Moms...wasn't that their job?
I did not get why kitchen tables were so marred and always seemed to have crumbs or sticky stuff on them. How long does it take to wipe down your table?
And why were the mothers were always running out the door half-dressed with wet hair?
As I ran out the door today, I laughed aloud. The things I judged were now ALL true of me. I now know the answers to all those questions. :-)
12 comments:
your blog is feel good......
What's dangerous is how easy it is to forget these things as your kids get older. Before Jacob was born, my two oder kids were in grade school. I can remember looking at things my (then) two year old nephew would do and wondering why my SIL would put up with that. "MY kids wouldn't...(fill in blank)" And then he was born and turned two and we had to deal with the same things. Oooohhhh, yeah.
Ohhh my, how life & children put things in perspective for us. My friends all say when we say, "My children would never do ____fill in the blank." That is when we just guaranteed ourselves our children will do that particular thing!
Ahhh, parenting (of multiples).
God Bless, -Gail
So true, so true. I type this as I am straightening my house so the babysitter won't feel as overwhelmed with the chaos tomorrow afternoon :)Too funny! I often feel like I live from one pile to the next--laundry, paperwork, "treasures", books to read, toys, things to return to specific places,etc. Too funny!
It's amazing how critical we are of others till we are the "others"!! Just remember the children....they are the most important things. The house can be cleaned after they grow up...so can the laundry be done!
I totally identify with this post. I used to do the same thing to the Mom's I sat for and now I wonder how they did it.
Love your blog. It's always so encouraging!
After 27 yrs. of raising children this made me smile. Oh how quick we are to judge in so many ways. My daughter about to deliver baby # 2 will have to do the same as she looks back on these days. We talked about that just yesterday.I think God has His way of helping us be HUMBLE.
God Bless you,Cheryl
it's funny because most of my friends are younger than me and/or aren't married with kids and i feel they "judge" us all the time...because i did the same thing 10 years ago...but wow. everything and them some is MUCH worse for me...guess the Word is true...how you judge you will be judged :) bummer
Amen, Sister!
That is hilarious! I have never looked at babysitting from the other side at this point in my life. I did a lot of babysitting when I was younger. Those comments sound so familiar. So true!
Casey
Oh how funny that you should post this today. I was experiencing similar flashbacks last night as we left a babysitter behind with a big mess. :-) Funny how growing up changes perspective.
So, have you gotten any sharpie murals yet? The joy is in the journey isn't it...even if it is a sticky, wet-headed one.
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