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| My Great Aunt....Super Mom dancing with the rest of the Super Mom's of the PTA! |
A good friend was over for dinner the other night with her three children and shared with me her schedule for the next day. I will share it with you now and wonder if your head will spin as much as mine did at the thought of accomplishing all of these things in one day.
Wake up at 5:30, start cleaning the first of three bathrooms (her husband gets the kids up and ready for the day on Thursday), strip the beds, get sheets into the washing machine, clean the second bathroom, switch the laundry, play with her one year old (other children are at school) while frosting her husband's birthday cake, put her daughter down for a nap, clean the 3rd bathroom, get the sheets back on the beds, straighten up her house, wake up her daughter, go to pick up her Kindergartner and his friend at school, host a lunch playdate with three children and another mother, drive the three kids to soccer practice, bring the children back to their houses, pick up her 2nd grader at school with his DI team, bring them back to her house for an emergency practice that she will have to lead, make a birthday dinner for her husband after the DI team leaves, bathe and put the kids to bed and then CRASH.
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| My Grandmother Noni, a wonderful and loving Super Mom |
Now you have to understand that my friend is
Super Mom (if there is such a person). She is always upbeat, rarely says "NO", has amazing patience with her kids and always has a clean house. Well she says that this is not always the case but every time I am with her it appears to be so :) I gave up on being Super Mom about a year ago. That is not to say that I don't like to keep a neat house or plan fun things for my kids, I have just decided to slow our lives down. I have learned that a frenzied mommy with too much going on is no fun for anyone in my house.
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| Scott's Grandmother, Super Mom to 4 girls |
I remember the days when we were GO, GO, GO. These days started back in High School (maybe before) and I always felt like if I didn't have somewhere to go or something to do...then there was something wrong with me. I liked to be on the move, loved to have a full calendar and usually ended most nights EXHAUSTED. My poor husband would look forward to weekends he could lounge around and there were so few on the calendar. We were always on the go and from April to October, we were rarely home on weekends. Instead we were traveling up and down the Northeast coast visiting anybody and everybody.
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| My Grandma Marie and my very own beautiful and Amazing Super Mom on her wedding day |
This pattern did not stop after I had kids. I filled our days with playgroups, classes, shopping excursions and trips to friends houses. Our weekends were full as well and anytime that was spent at home felt like it dragged.
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| My Mother In-Law...A True Super Mom |
Then I read
Simplicity Parenting and all of this changed. We dropped the majority of our activities, scheduled
home days and
home weekends and have slowed life down. I no longer feel like my time at home is dragging, we have a happy and flexible routine and LOTS of downtime for the kids to play. One of the huge benefits of slowing down is that my children no longer need to be constantly entertained. Boredom is a gift that allows them to truly engage in their play and practice the dying art of childhood. Slowing down the pace of our lives has been a great gift to everyone in my family. Time at home is now something I crave and treasure instead of dread and avoid.
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| Slowing it Down |
3 comments:
Is it weird that I feel like I need to go clean my bathroom now?
I need those home days and weekends. I don't feel refreshed when we've had too much to do.
I enjoyed looking through your list of "Super Moms", and I thank you for putting me with all those wonderful women. I can think of a few more "Super Moms" that I would add: you, your sister, and some of your amazing friends. I guess we learn by example, and we have all had the chance to learn from some amazing women (and some "super dads" too. The greatest gift given to a man or a woman is to be a parent.
This is at least the tenth recommendation I have read for Simplicity Parenting. I have been trying to buy it using some Amazon store credit but keep getting errors :(
If your Super Mom friend thrives on that schedule, good for her. I have a similar friend, house immaculate, volunteers, loads of activities and she's a high school vice principal. I think of her and what she crams into a day and I feel the urge to take a nap.
We're in a similar spot as you. We've decided to slow down. A lot. One thing that has helped is that my husband changed careers and works and travels less. The other thing that helps is that we like keeping our schedule pretty open. Usually only a few commitments during in a week and a loose schedule of things we like to do and places we like to go. We like it.
Great post. I really enjoyed the writing and the pictures. :)
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