Scandalous Motherhood and Another Part of The Oxygen Mask

This self care journey is very exciting, and just as I suspected, my whole family is benefitting from it.  I'm working hard on getting in shape and healthier, but yesterday morning, I realized something.

We moms especially get thrown on guilt trips about every decision we make. There is no winning. There is only rising above and disregarding these guilt trip invitations because no matter what we do, someone will be offended or think we are being selfish or lazy or whatever else. Moms can stay home with their children, or work all day and come home to take care of her family. Moms can breastfeed or bottle feed, and may I add to the breastfeeding: cover or not cover. Moms can homeschool, send her children to private school, or enroll them in their local public school. Moms can baby wear or use a carseat. Moms can use cloth diapers or disposable, pacifiers or no pacifiers, tv or no tv, organic or non organic, coupons or just look for sales. It doesn't matter what we do!!!! We will be criticized. We will offend. I'm starting to think that motherhood is a very scandalous career choice! Okay, I have to get back on track here...

I am not naturally a very neat person. I'm a "right now" person. I rarely think ahead. So, housekeeping is a struggle, but I LOVE when my house is clean. I feel like I have an invaluable tool at my disposal to serve my family very well. Everyone is happier. We can find things. We can eat well. We can stay on top of homeschooling. We can go places. We can have friends over. It's wonderful! BUT what do we moms hear about housecleaning? We hear that if we make housecleaning a high priority, we are choosing the house over our children. For me, this mindset has severely backfired. It's natural for me to choose the moment with my children. I am proud of that. I see the importance of the now. I see how housework needs to wait sometimes, and you need to play or read or take a walk or just listen to your children's thoughts. Yes. These things are very important. The thing is, though, the house is part of my oxygen mask too! I didn't look at it like that until yesterday morning. It was an "Ah ha!" or aka "Duh" moment for me. 

Too often, the house is messy. Honestly, the house is messy most of the time, and it is suffocating. I could say: "Hey, we have 9 people and a dog living here, of course the house is messy!", but that's just not going to cut it anymore. Just like I am refusing to accept those excuses for my body and energy level, I cannot accept these excuses for my home any longer, and I'm finally getting the energy I need to tackle it.  I have tried so many things to motivate my children to help out, but I think I've been a boss instead of a leader to them. 

My house is a major part of my oxygen mask, and while I still need to value "right now", I need to start investing a lot more in the invaluable tool of a clean house so I can serve my family well.  

Now, let's get that dishwasher and washing machine going and sweep this floor, shall we?