It’s crossed my mind before that “Keeping It Together” is probably a better way to combat the general feeling that children are problems. I’m sure that’s better than by all the “Keeping It Real” posts and talk we Mamas gift the world with. (see Kendra’s #2. “PROBLEM: People hate children.) I’m guilty of putting some of that pressure on myself, to make all this child rearing look fun, peaceful and happy as to not provide more fodder for the haters….
But…this is way more fun.
Plus, without the mess, the screaming and the chaos, then perhaps the glass of wine at the end of the day just might not taste as sweet.
I love my babies more than a glass of wine but they’re tiny whirlwinds of noise and mess 99% of the time. And this fact makes the 1% of the time that they aren’t just amazing for my mama eyes, those times make those victories that much more…victorious. The hard days make the easy days greater.
It’s satisfying looking back on the messes of the week before and knowing that they’re gone now. They did actually get cleaned up. In the moment all you feel is exhaustion, but you plow through and on the other side there’s accomplishment.
And I’ve been thinking about this lately, the way we cheapen triumph by making everything so much easier for ourselves. There’s much less satisfaction in a job well done when getting the job done came without some amount of pain. A lesson I’m working on and a lesson I want my babies to learn.
We cheapen triumph when there are no failures.
I’m not sure I really have a greater point than that. I’m still connecting a lot of dots between many of the things I’ve been coming across lately in my readings, consequences maybe you could call them of the ways our culture has cheapened everything.
Nothing is getting better that’s not a news flash. I think it’s a worse offense to that fact that we believe we are so much more enlightened now than we’ve ever been. When the sorry truth is we’re all so so wrong. When there is no Standard to follow or to measure up to then we all fumble around in the dark. Making things up as we go, thinking we’re way better than we really are, which is lost.
Well , that’s enough for now. I’m so glad I have a blog to dump insightful musings like this one on you sweet innocent bystanders!
I laughed and applauded through this whole thing. Sometimes its nice to know you are not alone! And thank heaven for things usually coming together in the end. And wine. 😉
This always makes me laugh! I’m glad you post it all so one day you can look back and laugh too! 🙂
I was so frustrated with the mess yesterday I just started snapping pictures of it all. Was gonna make a post about it, but just the simple act of the pictures was enough to release the defeat. I still might write about it, if my three year old ever quits thrashing on the floor and gets his nap 😉
Yes, y’all Hindsight is always good for a laugh!
Rebekah, scolding and taking pictures at the same time can do wonders for the fury!
You know, for some reason I see more clearly the permanent, lovely aspects of my house when I take pictures (like the oak trim, the southern sun coming in the windows). The messes look less hopeless and endless, too.