A clean house versus time with your kiddos

When your children grow up, how will they feel about you, mom?  What will they remember you for?  Being the mom with the cleanest house in the neighborhood, scrubbing the baseboards with a toothbrush, mindlessly ironing clothes (which could never happen here because I do not own an ironing board), spending hours on cleaning floors and toilets.  Sounds like awesome memories for your children.  I would not like to be remembered by my children for these things.  I personally have never been accused of having a clean toilet but I guarantee it is cleaner than the gas station toilets and that is good enough for now.

I want my kiddos to reflect on happier memories of me.  Kids grow up so fast, there is no time to waste on things that can wait.  I want them to remember me for all the HOURS I spent waiting inside a freezing cold ice skating rink, how many times I watched them running crazy through the same bounce house a million times and telling them how great they were at maneuvering it and sliding down, doing craft projects that by all accounts were not even all that great but left glitter and glue on everything, reading the same book out loud so many times that I did not need the book anymore, birdwatching, chasing butterflies, making Playdoh food, and playing a 4 day game of Monopoly because they did not want it to end.  These are the things I want them to remember me for and having a shiny sink and clean windows has nothing to do with that. 

I think back to a time when I did not have kids and my neighbor had 4, and she was a stay at home mom.  The kids were all fairly close in age. Really nice family but I always remember thinking how messy their house ALWAYS was.  I just could not fathom it.  What is she doing all day that she cannot clean her house?  She was there.  What was she doing?  Why did having multiple kids in diapers and new walkers stop her from cleaning up?  Ridiculous I thought!  This is NEVER going to be the case when I have kids!  Well, now I know what she was doing.  She was trading her time cleaning to be a hands on mom, and she was a really good mom then and still is.

I think that in life, we get so side-tracked by what we are supposed to do, that we lose sight of what really matters, family.  You only get one chance to make an impression on your kids and to actually enjoy being with them.  Being a mom is not glamorous or high paying but so very important to your kids.  You may not realize it now because often times we feel judged by the way our home looks.  Obviously, if it is not clean, it is our fault right?  Even though I am pretty sure we were not the ones making the messes and getting things dirty.

I am not saying spend every moment with your kids because that is just not possible or wise but find a balance that allows time to create some of these fun-filled memories for your kiddos to look back on later in their lives with fond memories.

So moms, here is something to think on.  

I want my kids to remember me for .................