Sanity. Children. A Clean house. Pick two of these... because in my humble opinion, it is not possible to have all three. Personally, I choose children and sanity. The only way to maintain said sanity is to let it go.
Just read a sweet post from Zen Habits that helped me shift perspective on my messy life. He talks about the everyday messes from his kids... and the 'mental trick' he uses to maintain a grateful heart when dealing with a lego disaster... consider it a love note from your child.
"My daughter leaves her legos all over the living room? A love note for me — yay! My son left his cookie crumbs all over the counter? Another love note — amazing! I can pick up after them gratefully, or give them a hug of thanks and ask them to clean up.
The legos can be seen as frustrating, because why don’t they clean up, or I can see them as the physical manifestation of my daughter’s personality, the things she’s passionate about, the playfulness in her heart. And I can realize that if she weren’t living with me, yes I’d have a lovely neat nevermessy home … but then she wouldn’t be in my life.
So now I see the legos as a reminder that I have this beautiful person in my life. A love note, unintented unexpected unendurably full of love."
I very much like this way of thinking and will definitely be trying to see the 'love notes' in my own life. The dog slobbery love notes all over the floor... the sticky porridge on the table love note... the gob of toothpaste on the faucet love note... and my favourite the "I just sat down in pee" love note.
If only I had read this a few years ago when I had my infamous Captain Jack Sparrow Lego tantrum (a fit of rage that arose from cumulative injuries from stepping and sitting on Pirates of the Caribbean Lego, the result of which was mom taking a full moving box of lego to Goodwill).
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