Since starting this blog and advertising my posts on Facebook, I have received a lot of positive feedback, a lot of virtual fist pumps from other young moms who can relate to what I write about, and I have also received a few questions.
One question I have received more than once is “How do you do it?”
This, in and of itself, is a loaded question with a lot of possible responses. Elaborate.
“How do you do it all?”
Clearly this question comes from complete strangers, because anyone who knows me personally knows that I do not, in fact, do it all. If you’ve been to my house, you have seen piles of laundry waiting to be folded and put away. You have seen dishes from yesterday’s dinner just waiting for “the maid” to do them. You have seen unfinished projects and unfinished rooms, leftovers from my last “cleaning & organizing spree” that I was never able to complete.
If you were here right now, you would see me ignoring my 3 year old as she jumps from the armrest of the couch to the cushions, yelling “Cannon ball!”
That’s what this blog is all about. I don’t do it all. I can’t do it all. We can’t, as women, do it all…as much as we like to believe we can.
I shouldn’t say can’t. We are so powerful that we can do anything we put our minds to doing, but if you have ever found yourself doing it all, you probably have found that you can’t do it all very well. Something suffers. Something doesn’t get as much attention as it should. Something turns out poorly because you were rushing around like a crazy person.
And it sucks if that “something” is a batch of chocolate chip cookies.
But it really sucks if that “something” is your child.
(Note: I just told the 3 year old to stop cannon balling on the couch)
So, let’s stop, take a breath, and focus on what we can do.
We can answer the door to the UPS guy in a bath towel while holding one child on the hip and keeping the other one from yanking the towel off from the floor.
We can manage to stir something hot on the stove while singing Disney songs to the banging of plastic bowls and mixing spoons.
We can buy a cart full of groceries and smush them around a cart full of children like some sort of human Tetris game.
We can change a diaper with one hand and hold a cell phone to our ear with the other and restrain a wild, nakey-butt baby with our legs.
We can kiss their boo-boos, hold their hands, and dry their tears.
We can read the stories, find the blankies, and scare the monsters away.
We are the mamas.
There’s so much we can do when we think we can’t do anything.
