The Normal Beaty Bunch

Ok – I’m thinking that ‘working smarter’ is way better than being dumb. Do you agree? Good, I thought you would. So, here’s the ‘smarter’ thing I’ve been working on. We have 8 children. One is in college in Chicago (Hi Caleb!) but the other 7 are still living at home. The number of people at home keeps increasing! Many days I have extra babysitting kids, 3, 5, maybe up to 9 or 10 extra bodies in the house. We are praying about adopting two more kids. I’ve got to figure out how to work smarter!

Take meal-time, for example. Each meal that we sit down together to eat, we have 7 cups, 7 plates, 21 pieces of silverware, serving bowls, serving utensils, pots and pans, and the list goes on and on. That is a full dishwasher load. Each meal! So – working smarter makes things easier. For example – maybe with P,B & J sandwiches, & chips, I could serve that on paper towels, and save a lot of dirty dishes! Each time someone wants a drink of water, they get a cup out of the cupboard, get a drink, and throw the cup into the sink. Needless to say, everyone gets only 1 cup a day!

Let’s not discuss laundry. Thanks.

I’ve been evaluating how I spend my time. For goodness sakes! I stay home all day, every day. The house should be spotless, right? (W R O N G ! ! ) So why, I wonder. Well, I’ve figured something out. I spend a whole lot of time ‘reminding’ kids to clean their room, pick up their clothes, do their jobs, brush their teeth, etc. It’s exhausting! I have begun to wonder if it would take less time for me to just clean their rooms, pick up their clothes, do their jobs, brush their teeth … well, maybe not the teeth part!
So – here’s my new ‘parenting technique’. “Ima gonna clean their rooms.” I believe that I will spend less time cleaning their rooms daily, than I would if I were reminding them to do it, checking the room, and then sending them back in to do it right (twice!)

(YES! There is a catch to this!) Think through what a hotel room looks like. A bed, dresser, maybe a desk, lamp, and chair. That’s not hard to keep clean. Clothes are either put into drawers or in the dirty clothes hamper. It can’t take long to keep that clean.

Too many clothes? Too many shoes? Toys? Make-up? Hmmmm…that could be a sad situation for someone…Not me, however, because I won’t be picking up all those toys. At least, not more than once.

I’d hope that maybe one of them would think that if they made their own bed, put the stuffed animals neatly on the pillows, they wouldn’t have to loose those. I’d think, that they’d realize that the make-up put away in the proper place won’t be picked up by me. And…those nerf darts and legos…try not to worry about them.

Here’s my prepared speech:

Child ~ “MOM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY ROOM?”


Me ~ “Oh honey. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been asking too much of you to expect you to clean your room and pick up after yourself. So I decided that as a Good Mom, IMA GONNA CLEAN YOUR ROOM for you.”

Child ~ “BUT MOM! I DON’T WANT YOU TO CLEAN MY ROOM!”

Me ~ “Oh honey. Ima gonna clean your room. Try not to worry about it.”

Child ~ “BUT MOM! I WANT TO CLEAN MY OWN ROOM!”

Me ~ “Oh honey. Ima gonna clean your room Try not to worry about it.”

Child ~ “BUT MOMMMMM!” (hear the whine?)

Me ~ “Oh honey. Ima gonna clean your room. Try not to worry about it.”

I am curious what will happen now. I will let you know how that works out for me. Try not to worry!