Thursday, October 18, 2012

Staging for Play-Dating


Aud and I are avid play-daters and have been since she was about 3 months old. We thoroughly enjoy meeting up with mummy and baby friends and making an afternoon of it. As I have mentioned in past posts I have a really amazing circle of mums and babes, most of which have gone back to work, but a couple who are still at home.  I live a little out of the way for a lot of them but have come up with creative ways of hosting like meeting up at the park for a picnic, or stroller walks and splash pads in the summer, mall walks in the cooler days. There are times I have hosted at my place and as I was getting ready for our play-date I couldn’t help but giggle to myself about how I ‘stage’ my home for company.

I’m not saying I don’t enjoy a clean house, or that my place is a dirty, frazzled mess all the time. I actually thoroughly enjoy cleaning and organizing but since becoming a mum finding time to do a full out clean or even the daily dusting is few and far between.

So here I go, picking up toys, dusting every shelf, shining the mirrors, scrubbing the bathroom and then it dawned on me. Does my mum friend really believe this is what my place looks like everyday? Am I really fooling her to believe I make our bed every day? That my kitchen looks this immaculate? Not to mention the fresh baked cookies and pumpkin spice candle for smell. If only I was a real estate agent staging homes for a living, I think I would do pretty well.

How funny is that?  Her and I have actually had a good laugh about it before. How we try our best to impress other mums, giving off this façade of a women who keeps it all together, who’s floors are spotless and shelves are dustless. Personally I have never walked into a fellow mum’s home and thought OMG? Why hasn’t she folded the toilet paper ends in her bathroom? Or I see a spot on her mirror, doesn’t she clean? Puh-lease.

 Ready for the truth? I definitely do not make my bed everyday, actually our room usually looks like a clothing bomb went off. I have this bad habit of getting out clothes, changing a million times and never putting them back. Then finally at the end of the week when I can no longer see my dresser I decide to go through it all and put it away.

I do have a habit of vacuuming a couple times a week but only because Audrina will find the smallest of smallest fluff or crumbs and eat it, (ok-do babies have x-ray vision or something?) Aud has also figured out that if she keeps her bottle tilted upside down she can paint a beautiful of milk drops and smears all over the floors…try keeping up with that 45 times a day.

Fresh baked cookies? Ok I might of gone to Tim Horton’s and bought a half dozen of cookies to put out…although I really do bake a mean batch of uh-mazing CCC’s, but who has the time? Let me know if you want my recipe…one tip melt the butter.

So why do I do it? Why do I insist on spending all evening and even during her nap cleaning and getting prepped for a play date that will only result in toys and food everywhere? I guess it’s because I really do have a feeling of satisfaction when it’s over. The feeling of knowing when they walk in they will think, wow her place smells great, or being comfortable putting their babies on my floor not worrying about them eating last nights dinner. Even though the women I am friends with are probably the least judgmental mum’s I have met, I still have this need to impress them.

So I am giving myself a challenge, the next play-date I host I will not go on a cleaning spree, I will not “bake” cookies or light a candle, and I will not pick up Aud’s toys all morning or make my bed. Do you think they will notice? Probably not…because the truth is the only one’s us mum’s need to worry about making an impression on is our kids and to be honest I think Aud would love it way better if I didn’t spend the time putting away her blocks only to have her have to find them and spill them out onto the floor for the 3rd time today thinking, ‘I wonder how many times she wants to play this game?”

To read more of my blog please visit http://newmumontheblog.wordpress.com sharing experiences, insights, and advice from one mum to another