A method to my madness

Having an organizational personality doesn't always help when it comes to be a mom. One would think it would, but sometimes it's to my downfall, especially when not all of my offspring have the same personality trait. Maybe it's just kids in general, I don't know for sure. Or maybe it's just that it's summer time and I'm reminded daily that organizing this or that is mostly a waste of my time because it'll be destroyed within a few days.

Last week, I gave my girls a 24-hour notice that the next day we were ALL going to work together to get some major house projects done. No one would be going swimming, or going to a friend's house, or lying around watching TV.

We were gonna work, work, work until every closet, drawer, and cabinet looked like Martha Stewart just took over our house.

We're talking color-coordinated, stacked largest to smallest, and categorized by current and future use. I made a big fat list of projects, slapped it on the counter, and announced to all that the duties for tomorrow had been assigned. I went to bed looking forward to greeting the next morning with energy and excitement!

The troops were up bright and early and for a few wonderful minutes, were actually excited about taking on my huge list of tasks. I tried my best to start our organizing day out fun by cranking up the tunes and keeping positive, and for me a large amount of coffee. I told myself not to nag at their slower speeds and be open to their new suggestions on how to arrange the cabinets. Instead of micro-managing, I let them choose a project and told them to knock themselves out.

It was great for the first three or four hours, but then as people's stomachs begged for lunch and their patience working aside one another dwindled, my project goals for the day, which were dispersed evenly between us all, somehow became solely mine. Even after I fed the hungry workers their lunch, their attitudes remained sour and their bickering continued. It seems organizing closets and cabinets loses its luster after a few hours when you're under the age of 12.

So, I gave in and released them from their duties for the afternoon. The big girls shot off to the pool and I conned the little one to take a nap. At least I could work in peace for a few hours. I didn't care if we ate frozen pizza and cereal for dinner all week; I was getting some organizing done! I was so sick of opening a cabinet to get something and half the junk in it falling out on my face and I thought that blasted Tupperware cabinet was gonna send me right over the edge one day. I'd had enough!

However, the girls, apparently, don't quite get the same satisfaction of having an organized house as I do. They probably just think their mom is this drill sergeant, mad woman with an organizing disorder who loses it every now and then, and clears out a cabinet in 3 seconds flat by dumping the entire contents on the floor.

Can't they see that I'm just teaching them valuable life lessons? Don't they know that it's my job as a mom to show them how to neatly stack plastic containers and lids for easy retrieval? Now that they've helped, won't they realize all the time and effort I put into keeping a nice home for them?

At this point, who knows? But maybe someday, when they are a mom and have an assortment of clunky items fall from the cabinet on top of their heads and crash onto their toes, they'll see there was a method to my madness.

Maybe they'll even call to thank me!