What Really Matters

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Kids. They’re messy. If it’s not Play-Doh on the kitchen floor, it’s clothes on the bedroom floor. If there aren’t toys in the bathtub, they’re in the back seat of the car. There’s always something to be picked up, and a mom’s role in housekeeping can be frustrating. But if we tweak our thinking just a bit, make ourselves aware of what really matters, our job won’t seem so tough.

The other day I was cleaning my kitchen table, and I discovered a few blobs of hardening strawberry yogurt. My eyes fell on a nearby pair of scissors, and then the scraps of Go-Gurt casing my daughter had cut to smithereens as she sucked the plastic tube dry. My first reaction was frustration over the mess.

But I took a good, long look at the table, that solid slab of wood we’ve had almost ten years. It’s been a good piece of furniture; it’s gotten us through countless meals and dozens of crafts and projects. It’s really held up well, despite milk spills and crazy forays with finger paints. A few drops of dairy goodness won’t do it harm.

If I focus instead on the fact that my youngest chose to eat a healthier snack of yogurt, not a cookie, and realize the amount of resourcefulness she exhibited to get that snack, my frustration fizzles.

What if, instead of cursing the pounds of Legos and Barbies spread over the living room floor, I give thanks for my child’s imagination? Sure, it’ll be a pain to pick them all up (especially if I can rein in no help), but the creativity my daughter put forth to build her Super Barbie Land is far more important to recognize.

So let ‘em link a train of Crayolas down the hallway. And would it really hurt if they put their plastic food sets in the real refrigerator? It does create more work for us (remember, it’s also a prime opportunity to teach skills for cleaning up after themselves), but we’ll be glad we gave them a certain amount of creative freedom. They learn and grow by doing all those things that are so fun and natural to them.

We can’t let ourselves get caught up in the day-to-day messes our kids create. It’s the other stuff that really matters.

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