The days are long, but the years are short. The older I get, apparently the more cliche I become 🤷🏼♀️
As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in our playroom that is DESTROYED watching Eli throw yet another item across the room. I have an extremely type A, neurotic personality (I think we’ve covered this?) and messes drive me INSANE. However, it’s time for me to retrain my brain. When Eli was younger, I spent A LOT of time going behind him constantly and cleaning up his messes. As if the house constantly needed to be magazine-ready. Forreal, who did I think I was?! (Mental note: you’re not Beyonce, Renee!) And guess what? I already regret some of that time I’ve lost. It’s a very hard balancing act for me — but it’s something that 100% needs to be done. Here’s a few things I’ve tried to implement in my daily life to help strike that balance:
1. Keep all toys in a designated room and let them go wild. Yes, your kids will almost undoubtedly bring them out to other rooms in the house, but it at least helps minimize the clutter. I usually go around the house twice a day (once in the early afternoon when they’re both down for naps and once right before bed) and gather all the scattered toys to return them to their rightful places. Aside from these two times per day, I try to put my BLINDERS on and focus on other priorities.
2. Get the kids involved in “clean up” time from a young age. I think this not only helps them learn respect for their surroundings, but also instills a sense of responsibility. And sing their praises when they do a great job!!
3. I’m going to be honest, I haven’t actually implemented this one yet, but uh…I’m excited to start…soon-ish? TIME BLOCK chores around the house. Set a rough schedule for days or times that you’re going to do necessary household chores (laundry, cleaning, etc). But PLEASE give yourself some grace with this. If you don’t get certain items checked off at your dedicated time, give yourself a pat on the back for whatever else you accomplished in lieu of that and move on!
4. This one is big for me — write down your top priorities the night before. I try to do this almost every night during the week. This helps me to start every morning with a set of clear guidelines for what I want to accomplish. (It also helps me to sleep better at night because my mind isn’t racing about all the things I have to do the next day and worrying about whether or not I’ll remember everything.) And because I’m so type A, I even write reminders to step away from all of my “responsibilities” to really focus on time with the kids. Because let’s face it, that’s our biggest responsibility!
5. I’m an early-riser most days. I try to get up way before my kids to review my aforementioned list, eat something, work out, check work emails, and just have some time to MYSELF. You don’t have to apologize for needing this.
Trust me, this is not a foolproof system for me. Some days I nail this, some days I question how I’ve made it through 30 years of life and haven’t fallen to my demise as a direct result of my clumsiness. Definitely open to hear any tips or systems you’ve put in place to find that ever-so-perfect mom balance. 1, 2, 3…GO!
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