Friday, January 11, 2008

Caring for young children

I'm not an enthusiast of housekeeping: I have never had a House and Garden Cover Story home - not only have our houses and possessions never been of that standard, but nor has my house keeping. In addition, I have lived for 20 years in houses that have not actually finished being built! However, I have felt that it has been comfortable for me (if not my husband) most of the time the last couple of years. You know, messy but my mess!


Then this week, the grandchildren came to stay for three nights.


Suddenly there was all this unaccustomed mess, and even if I tidied it up, it was spread around again ten minutes later.......


And then there were the other things: I managed to keep up with the washing - just - but the kitchen..............


It's good to have this happen, to remind me that even if I am reaching the crone stage of my life, my supposed wisdom is nothing without true memories of what it is really like. It's also kinda nice to realise that once upon a time, when I was a mother of four small children, I was indeed Superwoman.

It has also reminded me that one thing that I didn't get when I was struggling with young children was acknowledgment of the truly hard job I was doing so I'd like to acknowledge three of the best mothers I have ever known: Shell, Debbie and Violet, you are the greatest - true superheros.

3 comments:

  1. What's all this? I drop by to see what you've been up to, and I'm labelled "one of the best mothers you've ever known"? Wow...I don't know what to say- I'm tempted to regale you with all my less-than-stellar moments, of which there are plenty...but would rather say- it's because of people like you Cally, who hung in there though your boys were grown (or nearly), preaching unadulterated unschooling/mindful & respectful parenting...and helped people like me get where I am.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And anohter thign... I meant to say 'Welcome to my world", about the mess tidied then reappearing...lol...but you know that, and you were (and are) Superwoman. But guess what? My hosue is reasonably tidy today- I might just blog about that (lol), and I have also made Oatie Chews (but they were meant to be square for her higness), and orange cakes...mowed the lawn (with baby on my back!), done hhe washing ,and will do the dishes before dh comes home...watched movies, played WoW, read a story, had a water fight, played in a paddling pool, been a steamroller, built with blocks, and had time to check e-mails and call my Nana :0) and it's only 4pm...hooray!

    ReplyDelete
  3. OMG - I couldn't do all that now let alone when I had small children!!

    It's the respectful thing I admire about you (and Debs and Violet) because it took till I had #4 to learn that, and I think that that is the real underlying basis of it all - once you have the respect for these people - however small they are - sorted, the rest all follows, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete