THE HOUSE CAN KEEP

above: a picture of my children when they were little


Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. ~Phyllis Diller

When I was a young mother I idolized my older sister and how well she maintained her home. She also had three children a few years older than mine yet her house seemed to always be neat and clean.
"How did she manage it?" I often asked myself. I never seemed to be able to keep on top of things. At that time my children were 2, 4 and 6 years of age. There were always toys scattered around my living room. Beds still unmade late in the afternoon. I remember one time she dropped by to visit me and popped her head into my bedroom and jokingly commented on the fact my bed was still unmade. I know it was meant in jest but it didn't sit well with me.
One day my mother was over visiting with me and I commented on how I felt so inadequate in my housekeeping and wondered why I couldn't keep it up.
My mother's response is something I have kept with me and remember to this day. Whenever I felt inadequate as a housekeeper I would remember my mother's words to me.
She said, "Hen, (a form of Scottish endearment) your house may be untidy but it is clean. You may not spend a lot of your day cleaning but you spend most of it, sitting on the floor playing with your children. That time and attention spent on your children is far more important than any tidy house."
So whenever I looked around at the mess we had made with all the "Little People" houses and zoos spread around the livingroom or the roads and bridges we made for all the Tonka cars, I would remember my mother's words and go back to playing with my children and the make believe villages we created. The house some day will be tidy, when they are older and on their own. I could wait until then and so could my house.