advice needed for working mother of 15 month old

chen

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 4:00 pm

mnt wrote:

I hear you all...I really do. but so much of who I am and my personality is wanting everything "perfect"...

Mnt: you can have everything "perfect"...or you can sleep. The choice is yours.

But seriously, you have to clarify your priorities. it's like the sign in my dh's workplace: "We can make it cheap, fast, or good. Choose any 2 out of 3."

The stark reality is that when you are a mom employed outside the home, unless you are wealthy enough to afford full-time live-in help, you are going to have to compromise on something--usually many things.

The trick is to figure out which one or two things are going to make you crazy if they don't meet your standards, address those, and learn to live with everything else. if home-cooked food from scratch is something you cannot live without, then the housekeeping will have to slide (or hire a cleaning service). If you cannot bear to see a child in an unironed shirt, either send the laundry out to a service or iron the shirts and buy takeout prepared foods for shabbos.

In the meantime, console yourself with the thought that after the children are grown and out of the house, you can have everything all "perfect" again.

One shabbos it happened that all our children were away at the same time. The house was perfect--or as close to perfect as we get these days. Shabbos morning--by which time the kids' rooms are usually right back to square zero--the house was still perfect. And silent. and lonely! I couldn't wait for the kids to be back, with all their mess and noise and clutter.

1stimer

Sun, Dec 04 2005, 4:13 pm

Quote:

One shabbos it happened that all our children were away at the same time. The house was perfect--or as close to perfect as we get these days. Shabbos morning--by which time the kids' rooms are usually right back to square zero--the house was still perfect. And silent. and lonely! I couldn't wait for the kids to be back, with all their mess and noise and clutter.

true true!