Here’s the thing, I’m very proud of my children’s ability to entertain themselves in an impressively imaginative way. I feel like I’m a good mother because I am encouraging their creativity. But they are also driving me mad. I’m not what you would call ‘good’ at housework. If I manage to put on a wash, wipe the kitchen surfaces and sweep the floor in one day then I’m very impressed with myself. And my children’s imaginations seems to create more housework than I can possibly cope with AND chat to my friends on Twitter.
Some examples of recent ‘games’:
- They filled an empty bath with a whole bottle of shampoo then used it as an ice rink. I realise that this is easy to clean but it is a waste of a bottle of shampoo and also possibly rather dangerous.
- The 8 year old was asked to lay a fire (not light it before anyone tells me off). She took it upon herself to also sweep the chimney. Using her hands.
- The 5 year old was found making little piles of sunflower seeds in the corners of the upstairs landing. He was “feeding the cute little mice”. I should point out that we don’t have any pets.
- They spread the contents of their small sandbox over literally half of our garden then got towels from the bathroom so they could “sunbathe on the beach”.
- They stuck a whole roll of double sided sticky tape on the hall floor “to catch burglars”. I should never have let them watch Home Alone.
So, like I say, I think they are very inventive and love the fact that they get on so well. But I also wish they’d spend a bit more time doing jigsaws. Should I supervise them more? And if I do that, when am I ever going to put a wash on? Speaking of which…
You’re obviously a fantastic mum – look how creative those kids are! Can you have creative kids and a perfect house? Absolutely not! In your case they’d probably take the jigsaws and create you a wonderful new mosiac floor – hide the tube of no nails… xx
I don’t dare have superglue in the house for that very reason. And I did once catch eve painting a chair “because it looks a bit boring”.
Oh I am laughing.
I wish my children were more inventive … although they have also watched Home Alone many times, so maybe not!
And presumably you don’t want vermin either.
I think it’s great that your children have such fantastic imaginations, I’m sure they will grow up to be creative adults. Then you can tidy up the house, it will still be there after they’ve moved on!
As long they haven’t burnt it down.
They can learn how to be tidy from a book but creativity takes time to develop & is far more important. Anyone can tidy & do housework but where are our Leonardos going to come from?!!!
Well if you put it like that, I am clearly doing an excellent job!
Oh please don’t reveal to me that you despair. I love that you’re kids seems so fun and that you encourage this. You saw the photo of our lounge after MM had been ‘playing’ & I often wish that he’d play neatly like some of my friends children. It’s mums like you that remind me to chillband let him explore & play how he wants.
Plus your tweets about them make me laugh. They won’t remember a tidy house anyway but they will remember all those things you listed.
Well as long as in making you laugh, I’ll keep on. Plus, I’m not sure that I could stop them even if I tried…
LOL-enough said.
That’s so funny – think we may have a similar issue with small rodents in the future…
They are actually quite cute. I’m in denial about them being filthy disease carriers.
hahaha your kids are great
They are going to have such good memories when they grow up x
I hope so, I hope that they don’t just remember me yelling at them to clean up.
See, I told you you should sit them all in the bath, one behind another, checking eachother’s hair for nits – that would keep them out of mishief!
You haven’t seen the mess they make every night in the bathroom. Sigh.
My brother, my cousins and I used to play slides in the bath. Similar to ice rinks. Banged heads were, as I recall, part of the fun…