So, I was thinking... What is the cost of a moment of silence in your home?
When I mean moment of silence, I mean peace, quiet, M playing happily by herself...
For me, these are the different costs of a moment of silence:
1. M emptying all the lids and measuring cups out of their drawers. A lot of them are consequently MIA...I've found them in very strange places...like this morning one of my 1 cup measuring cups was in the tub. Hmmm...
2. Letting her chew on my cell phone...sometimes she manages to call people. I'm concerned that she may ruin it...but is it really that important???
3. Taking all the DVD's out of the entertainment center and stashing them in various places...some of which I can't get to...like under the entertainment center. One of our rented library DVD's is currently under there and I don't know how to get it!
4. Letting her take all 100 cookie cutters out of their container and spread them all over the living room.
5. Baths that last 45 minutes because she's happy playing.
My aunt use to let her kids unroll toilet paper rolls because "They're happy. Let them unroll 3, its worth the cost!" So, on that note, I'm interested in what other people do...or let happen even though its messy, or cost a little bit.
5 comments:
i'm currently suffering from that problem. we have people coming to look at the house and all the 2t and 3t cloths are strewn (is that a word?) ALL over the house. rj's bedroom is a MESS! (lucky i only pulled out 2 tupperware containers full of toys for them to play with & blocked off the books; otherwise, i am sure it would look tornado struck). but they were so happy and quiet. so what if i have to go to bed ten hours later than normal?!? she is precious. oh, and another time rj ended up painting his younger brother with shoe polish, because daddy left it on the ground. . . and another time they took the liberty to clean grandma's floor with odor stuff. hmmm. maybe i should take a more active roll in watching them.
oh gosh! I cracked up reading your comment! Especially about the shoe polish!
It is really a trade-off. Sometimes their joy is worth an extra hour of clean-up time. But at other times they need to know that there are limits. After a few years of trying to keep things & my children "perfect" I finally decided that I had to make a decision. I could either have a husband, children & clutter OR I could live alone in a clean house. You don't have to guess what I chose. Someday, when we have an hour or two, remind me to tell you about Kevin's escapades. I could write a book!
It's like my friend Sara said when my friend Michelle was embarrassed about having to move a pile of clutter off the floor before being able to play a game with her toddler son...
"What do you think he's going to remember? The mess or the fact that you played with him for an hour?"
It's totally worth the mess. It makes for a lot more clean up after the kids are in bed, but isn't it worth the one-on-one time and giggly grins on their faces??
Choosing your battles is certainly key. Also, it really is the time together that they remember most...not the hours spent cleaning!
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