Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
You don’t have to look far—whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, blogs, take your pick—to see images of parenthood shared socially. Most of these images are carefully curated to look perfect. Even the pictures and videos showing off what a “hot mess” some families portend to be are clearly curated to be perfectly imperfect. I’m guilty of it too. If I’m proud of a recipe I created and want to show off the result, I tidy up the counter before I take the snap. I try to get decent lighting and put a filter on to maximize the impressiveness of the photo. I think this is a silly way to spend one’s time, but it’s a hard pattern to get away from. It’s what everyone else is doing.

Cleaning up your house is necessary. And moms being “OCD” about things being neat is nothing new. Social media has certainly added pressure to this tendency, though. I really like to be organized, but I try to keep myself in check. I want my kids to learn how to keep house, but they’re children. It’s more important that they have fun. I want them to be creative and feel free, not worry that they’re going to get in trouble. So yes, at my house you may step on a Lego or find a smear of glitter on the sofa. That’s life.

The consequence of this is that I do a lot of straightening up after the kids go to bed. It’s an interesting compulsion. In a few hours, when the kids wake up, the mess will be back in no time. But—trust me— the longer you let the mess go, the longer it will take you to clean it up. Better to not let it get out of control. People talk about how hard it is to have “nice things” with children, but I rue the day when the kids aren’t at home enough to get the house messy.