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No excuses, no apologies

After she wakes up from her nap, the Munchkin experiences something called “hunger,” which leads to a snack before dinner. The snack is also essential to her mother’s sanity, or the Munchkin would indulge in something else called “loud whining.”

So yesterday, I gave her a peanut butter cracker. She ate it and asked for a second. The second cracker turned into mush and crumbs all over the floor. I then received a revelation that I will never have a clean house again.

I guess I already knew that, but I wasn’t quite ready to admit it. It hurts a little, because I do like to have things tidy just in case company drops by. (The Jehovah’s Witnesses that came by this morning don’t count.) But when I started to divide up my company into categories – family, close friends that don’t clean up for me because we all have children and know that it’s a lost cause to tidy up, family that doesn’t see my house often, friends without children, and “real” company – I realized that I had succumbed to the inevitable.

Children make messes, and they like their messes.

We used to clean up the Munchkin’s toys each night after she went to bed. I’m not sure when we gave that up, but it hasn’t happened in a while. I think the last time it happened, we had company under the “friends without children” category. I do clean up to vacuum, but sometimes I cheat and vacuum around the mess.

I really am trying. I do get the laundry done (don’t ask about the ironing), meals get made (the dishes are a hit-and-miss deal), and the Munchkin does get her diaper changed frequently and hasn’t had a bad diaper rash since her bout with stomach flu. And when I leave the house, I generally try not to look like a slob. My main goal, of course, is to make the Munchkin look as cute as possible, because a cute toddler explains much to strangers – “Oh, no wonder she looks like that – she’s got a little girl. And how cute!”

So, a warning. I don’t apologize for my house. I have a toddler who acts like baby Godzilla sometimes. I’m having a second one in a handful of months – and if his in-utero activity is any indication, he’s not going to go any easier on us than his sister has.

Someday, the Munchkins will be old enough to clean up after themselves, but I think it will involve more of that “loud whining” that is detrimental to my positive outlook on life. In the meantime, call before you come over so I can at least hide all the toys under the coffee table and put on some lipstick.

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