You didn't do ANYTHING yesterday!

I watch a friend's kindergartner in the mornings before school so she can go to work.  Today, she wanted to go visit a park and I told her we had to stay inside and play this morning because I had to sort some laundry and clean the bathrooms.  For some reason, she enjoys watching me do chores ... even though I put in Sleeping Beauty for her so she'd have something to do while I got my stuff done.

"Yeah, you didn't do any of your chores yesterday." she agreed.

She's right.  I DIDN'T do any chores like that yesterday.  We just played all day long.  At least that's what it felt like to her because I kept her sufficiently distracted while I did "the invisible things Moms do" (as my mother used to say.)

She and Carmen played out front with some balls and a puddle while I vacuumed out the car.  We took Mark to work and went to Grease Monkey to drive through the car wash.  (Carmen hasn't been through a car wash since probably a year ago ... she hated the noises from the machines and the fact that she couldn't see out through any of the windows because of the soap.  Poor kid!)  Then we came home and I cleaned the kitchen and washed some laundry while the kids had lunch.

There are other kids who come over to my house and say things like, "Oh, do you just clean all day long?" and "Man, your house is so messy!" when they come over 15 minutes after Carmen has woken up from her nap and pulled out all of her toys.  It's hard to explain to them, "No, seriously, kid, it will only take 2 minutes to clean this up."


It makes me realize we have very, very little control over what little things our kids will focus on and remember.  Apparently, I either work like a dog (slaving away in the bathroom this morning!!) or I play all day long (vacuuming the car while playing outside yesterday!)  It just depends on what day you walk in on me and what happens to stick in your memory.

And this kid either hates or loves what I'm eating for lunch or what song happens to be playing on the radio or whatever.  Luckily her mom tells me she has nothing but nice things to say about me. =p


I used to get all worried reading parenting books and feeling like I have to do everything "right" or risk psychologically scarring my kids.  What a load of crap.  One person's idea of what "perfect" is could be completely different from another's perspective of "perfect" is, and the "right" thing to do with a kid is different depending on the kid and the situation.  I've decided to stop worrying.  I'm just going to do my best and do what feels best to ME and forget about what anyone else thinks!  My kids could think I'm crazy, my neighbors could think I'm strange, but the fact is nobody knows all of the little nuances of my life and why I do what I do.  We all do what works for us and make compromises where we need to.  My husband can attest to that - we do things way differently from how our neighbors might split things up but we're happy with the way we work things out!

My ultimate goal is to be happy and to help others be happy, too.  Especially my kids. ;)  Each one is going to have their own special and different needs and preferences, so I figure I'll just figure it out as they come along.  There's no need to preemptively stress out about anything.