My theme is seven and the series is seven situations unique to a mother of two
The fifth situation is that your house is never beautiful
You can read the earlier post here – It is always Mom v/s Kids
So you are proud of your housekeeping skills? Are your homes good enough to be on the cover page of Good Homes? Chances are you don’t have two children under eight! If you have two children at home, forget about having a spick and span house. I know there are people who have two children and still manage to have a beautiful house, personally, I just believe they are superhumans and one in a million. For mere mortals like me, it’s a herculean and never-ending task.
Nothing in its place
When the children are at home, there is hardly anything that is in its place. Toys will be found everywhere except in the toy storage. Playing or not, they have to be on the floor! The moment you pick them up, one of them will come looking for it. If not toys, then even the kitchen utensils will do! In the morning rush hour when the tiffins need to go on time, my younger one has the urge to get the entire kitchen down!
Twin’s or Children with less age gap
If you don’t want to be in the eye of a raging storm, never tell a mom of twins or with less age gap that her house isn’t tide enough. The poor woman can only manage so much. I have friends who just wish to get done with the day and hit the bed as all they ever do in the initial years is feed, put to bed, soothe a crying baby or clean. The kids just keep going in cycles and without help, it’s a daunting task. Hell, with just one kid at a time, I am so disheveled, my house help looks better than me!
Age gap of four or more
If the age gap is more, it’s still not a better story. By the time you have taught your older child to put things in place, the younger one is old enough to throw them around, so basically your house is a perpetual mess till both of them are at least seven years old and that my friend is a long time. Currently, building a house with pillows has caught my younger one’s fancy, so all the pillows in the house are in the living room at any given point in time. Why the living room you ask? Because cushions from the sofa are fundamental in making a good cushion/pillow house. My pleas, begging, shouting, even an occasional whack has resulted in zero improvements and now I have made peace with a pillow land that I call my living room.
Tell me about it. With just one kid my house is a complete mess. A cleanliness freak I always prided myself on being one- the pain in my bones and wiser sense prevails. I only tidy it up before switching off the lights only to see peppa pig and the blocks lying all over the next day. Life story of a mum 😂
Haha… Yup, I stopped cleaning a long time ago 😛
It is impossible to keep the house clean with a kid around…I have given up..and I am a woman with borderline OCD..so imagine how difficult it is for me to tolerate the mess
Totally agree with you balaka I too gave up a long time ago 😜
Hahah… two kids OKAY, I have just one and still the house gets toppled, clothes strewn here n there, toys littered and it takes all my strength to tell her to pick it up… including me I am also a mess always 😉
Same here!! I have stopped flipping through magazines so that I don’t feel bad 😛
Ah! Do you believe that with grown up kids, the house would stay spic and span? Ask me… with two boys in the house ie the husband and teenage son, my house cannot stay neat and clean for long. The cushions would never be on their place, the bedsheet would in disarray, newspapers can be found at all places, water bottles, glasses can be anywhere and everywhere… the list is endless. And this is when I have OCD for orderliness and I try to make their life miserable ! SIGH
Thankfully it’s my husband who is a neat freak! I have made my peace with mess. Thanks for stopping by
Sounds very scary. The good thing is people don’t expect moms of toddlers to have an impeccable house. It is very much understandable. Women have a lot of work specially after they have kids. They shouldn’t be very hard on themselves. Most women are too hard on themselves which is why by the time they are old, all kinds of joint pains attack them. 🙂 Mothers need to breathe in my humble opinion.
Yup! It’s the women who think their house reflects a lot more than what it actually does and hence the frenzy with neat homes. But chaos has it’s fun and I enjoy it as long as no one expects me to fix it 😛
hehe and I’m a mom of twins so I can relate to that point in particular:)
I hear you! Totally get it
Pillowland sounds peaceful and comfortable – enjoy a cup of tea there with the monkeys cuddled upto if you can manage that!! They will grow up sooner than you think and then you will miss this…
So very agree Shalini. I plan to show these posts to my kids once they are parents and embaress them 😝
Oh I can completely relate, as I have one 5 year old, but considering how much of a mess he manages to create, it looks like I have 10 kids!
And I used to be a neat freak (note the past tense here).But now there is no way to continue with my old ways if I have to be a mother who is not going nuts.
Yup! Mental peace wins over neatness any given day 🙂
Yet to reach that stage but I can totally imagine
Nice read 🙂
I used to build fort with pillows and blankets too and our house used to be a total mess. But I guess that’s the fun of living in a house with kids. I miss those days. And no parent should be judged so harshly. They all are doing their best after all.
This is the exact reason why i prefer meeting people out than inviting them home!
Great idea Namratha 🙂 thanks for stopping by
So true, my youngest will destroy a room within half hour. I feel like I spend more time cleaning than child raising even though I’m a stay at home mom.
Story of a SAHM life Michelle 😛 thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Haha Neha..I can so relate to everything you wrote. My younger one also likes playing with pillows. Thanks for linking up with #MMM 🙂
I am planning to gift them pillows this birthday! I hope then they will stop messing up the sofa cushions
Perfectly true.When you finally teach one child the other starts.I have told my daughter I plan to sweep away stuff if it gets stuck to my feet!This has worked partly.
Yup! That worked earlier. But sadly my children have now grown immune to these threats, so till I actually pick things and take them to the dustbin, they don’t take me seriously!!
OMG I have 4 kids in 4 years. When I look at our oldest and how mature he was and how much he helped compared to our youngest at 4 years old it’s night and day just based on pure nature. Now that they’re all 7-11 years old I am loving the sleep but woah pre-teens come with a heck of a sucker punch!
Omg this hit home. It was like you were a fly on the wall in my house. I have 2 girls, 4 and 1. I have mostly given up and it is what it is Haha.
I only have my daughter and her sidekick dog. It’s still crazy messy here.
Ah each and every word is spot on. And I feel relieved after reading all the comments that I’m not alone. My house looks like it has been ransacked and I have termed it as twin attacked home. By the time I finish my office in the evening and step out of my room, what a beautiful sight I get to see. With every possible toy and utensil of rvery size and shape on the floor, couch, bed and where not. Isn’t the story of every mom?😀
Ive learned to embrace the mess!
I have settled in my mind that kids bring mess lol. Pre-kid, everything around me was neat and clean. Post-kid, everything is one big mess!
Of course relating here.. With all four of us at home constantly for the last year now, it is a whole new way of keeping things in order
My cleaning standards sure did change once I had kids – especially after having more than one to chase around! The cleaning will always be there but the kids won’t so soak it up and clean later!
When my kids were younger, my house was always a mess. It was so frustrating! I could never keep up with it. I wish I had just let it go and understood it was too hard to keep the house clean.
This is spot on. I can relate to this.
I have chosen to not make keeping clean with a toddler a priority. I tried and was just stressed out all the time. I’m much more balanced now that I let it go and clean a bit at night before bed so that it’s somewhat manageable. But I refuse to let it frustrate me anymore.