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.
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
