I am always amazed at how many people have to do so many things. I have had very few have-tos in my life. I had to work and I had to take care of my kids. Now that I am retired, I do only what I want to do!
I began limiting the number of have-tos in my life when I was in my twenties. When my children were very young 3 and 5, we spent Saturday mornings cleaning. Why was I cleaning on Saturday morning? One reason was that was how I was brought up --every Saturday, we had to clean our rooms, change the beds and do whatever other chores were assigned to us. The other more valid reason was that I worked all week and Saturday was the only day I had to clean.
So instead of enjoying my children on one of the two days I had with them, I badgered them to clean their rooms while I cleaned the rest of the house.
One day, I asked myself; why am I doing this? My answer had nothing to do with me and everything to do with my mom. I realized I was cleaning my house for my mom, not for me. I decided, my house did not have to be picture perfect. I chose to enjoy my children on Saturday mornings instead of cleaning. For the first time in my life, I felt free to do what I wanted to do on Saturday mornings. From that point on, the kids and I did fun stuff together.
Good to find a blog that is not full of political
ReplyDeleteranting and raving.