As a Mother, How Organized Are You?
By momsunited
@momsunited (61)
United States
June 18, 2007 12:49pm CST
For me, as I get older and life gets more hectic I become less organized. There was a time I thought I had it all together, but now I struggle to keep up! Sure, my tween, my toddler and my newborn contribute to me falling behind now and then, but for me it is as if my once perfectionist personality has done a complete turn around!
There are benefits to this, and maybe having kids has contributed to my change of perspective on life in general. For me, I have no problem letting the laundry or dishes go awhile without attention, if I am spendding time with my kids. I feel that they are only children for such a short time and I need to cherish our moments as much as I can. Before I know it they will be fleeing the nest onto to lives of their own.
Yet, sometimes I wonder if I am setting the wrong example for my kids. Not teaching them to be organized and staying on top of things. I feel torn about this.
I guess the key is balance, and for me finding a way to balance it all is difficult to come by! I am an all or none type person!
So, as a mom, how organized are you?
2 people like this
11 responses
@cynddvs (2948)
• United States
18 Jun 07
I try to stay as organized as I can. My fiance is pretty unorganized so I have to keep the both of us organized. The only problem is everytime I go through and clean really good my fiance complains that he can't find anything. I guess he likes to keep his organized mess lol.
@gadget_kat (412)
• United States
18 Jun 07
Oh goodness! Before I had my daughters, I was so well-organized and efficient, I was well-known for it, both at home and at my previous job. As the kids came, 14 months apart by the way, I became less-organized. Then, they started growing, and more toys come into the picture, and then, I am trying to spend time with them, so things definitely became chaotic in our household. Add to the fact that we live in a small house, and the girls share their bedroom, which is small. It is so hard to keep their room clean, along with the rest of the house. I've taken out books from the library, and have looked for ideas and tips online on how to control the clutter and become more organized once again.
I'm still searching.
@momsunited (61)
• United States
18 Jun 07
I "hear" ya! We too live in a small house, and it seems to be more difficult to keep things together. Of course we hope to get a bigger house in the future, but my husband seems to think that that will only be more space to have a mess! I beg to differ. In my previous home that was a bit bigger it was easier to keep things clean and organized...yet then again I only had one child, and now I have her and my two babies 12 months and 3 weeks apart...so maybe he is right!
@wachit14 (3595)
• United States
19 Jun 07
I think for a mother I am very organized. I feel that if I'm not, then I will end up having a panic attack. I keep things in order by using storage baskets for everything and I purge all old papers, etc. every few weeks. I wish I could say that it rubbed off on my kids, but I don't think it has. I guess in their own way they are somewhat organized, but I think (and hope) that better organizational skills will come with maturity.
@tseavellanosa (52)
• Philippines
19 Jun 07
I think my husband and I, although we always fight, are really ment for each other! Because in our house, he is more organized than me, I have a 1 year old kid and I am the one in charge, bathing, feeding. And my husband's part is to check our mess...Bathing a year old kid eat all my strength! so my husband does the getting of the used clothes and diapers. But would you believe that my 1 year old son can put his toys in his cabinet? especially when not in use!And he can clean up his room too! thanks for my mom and my husband's attitude for being organized!
I mess, they clean!
@ntotsch (19)
• United States
19 Jun 07
I'm not organized at all. And its kinda funny cause my mom was the exact opposite. When i was growing up, my mom made us help her clean, really clean. We had to dust, vaccuum etc. on a weekly basis. And we had to vacuum so that you couldn't see the marks left on the carpet by the vacuum cleaner wheels. I hated it, and now i'm lucky if i vacuum and dust once a month! I guess i had my fill when i lived at home. But now my sister is the ultimate perfectionist, and her house is always clean, with 2 kids! So who knows what we learn from our parents.
@34momma (13882)
• United States
18 Jun 07
oh girl please. don't worry about those dishes and dirty clothes. what they will remember is that my mother thought enough of me to let the dishes go for a couple of hours. they will remember my mother loved spending time with me. they are not going to care if the dishes were in the sink. spending time with your children makes you a great mother and you should be proud.
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
18 Jun 07
I think that I am very organized. Maybe too much. I have 4 children ages 18. 15, 13, 7. I find myself at times stressing over things that I should have done instead of enjoying the time I can take with my children. For instance, on Saturdays I always clean the house top to bottom. Last week my daughter came in my room on Saturday morning and asked me to play truth or dare with her. I said dare and she dared me no to clean the house that day. I was a bit stressed about it because the house then seemed so unorganized to me,but I kept true to the game. When my husband came home, he couldnt' believe that I didn't clean (he didn't mind, he just knows that things like that bug me.) I told him it was because I was dared not to.....and truth be told, the mess was still there the next day, so no harm.
@ateiris (53)
• New Zealand
18 Jun 07
I don't care anymore of how organized i am because for me i think spending my time with my kids is more important, they grow very fast and with a nick of time they don't want to spend time with us anymore because they have more important things or someone else is more important in their life, i'd like to enjoy them while i can. But yeah! i always involve my son of cleaning he's bedroom before he ask for playstation or play outside, i made a routine so that he will know that by organizing everything makes he's life more easier. and i agree with you balance in life will make life much better.
@Amstardam (1348)
• United States
18 Jun 07
I think I'm more organized as a mom, but less organized as a wife! My hubby just throws stuff everywhere and it's hard to keep up just cleaning up after him! Ha! My son is only 10 months old right now so he doesn't make that much of a mess, yet. I know I'm in for a real treat real soon but I'm enjoying him not walking yet, but he'll be walking in the next month or two! Aggh!
Hopefully I can keep better organized, but you're right time with my children and spouse are more important than laundry and dishes. Although not having a clean kitchen and clothes piling up are very annoying to me!
@liztrombley (92)
• United States
18 Jun 07
I am so disorganized when it comes to being a mother and just in general. Before I had Bo, I was a messy person, and it has gotten worse since he's come along pretty much for the fact that he makes a huge mess every day. Especially when it comes to his fruit/veggie puffs and his toys. At the moment I'm not too worried about it because he's only ten months old, but because you have older children, I would try to have them keep their things in their room to try to keep down the mess and stay a little bit more organized.
