Here is a tip with a funny backstory… One night I received a message from my oldest son’s second-grade teacher that I had to call her; when I got a chance, she wanted to tell me about one of his writing assignments. I was in the process of putting my other children to bed, and my mind started racing with all of the things she could be calling me to talk about. After quickly getting everyone into bed I gave her a call. She explained that my son was asked to write a persuasive writing piece and she felt she had to share his topic with me. For this assignment, they had to make a statement and then use persuasive writing to convince the reader. My son’s statement was “Why Mommy should not take out her “baby tubes”. ” To give you some background, at the time I was pregnant with my fourth child and had no idea my son was even listening to us discussing our medical plan. I am telling this story because one of his reasons among the three was that the more babies I had, the more help I would have with cleaning up messes (I hope that statement made you giggle). If you are not laughing, reread it. My second grader, believed that if there were more children, there would be no more messes but instead more hands to clean up the mess. We all know that’s not true, as adorable as the idea was in his head.
Our houses are constantly struggling between controlling the mess and chaos and keeping things “clean.” We want to do fun things with our children, but we also get bogged down knowing that clean-up is part of the process. The tip I am going to share I learned from the mother of one of my first child’s friends. She came over one day with a big hospital bag filled with pee-pee pads (you know, the ones they use in the hospitals after giving birth); now I call them life savers. She told me to save them and use them when they are painting or doing anything messy. At first, I laughed, but after the first use, I knew I had to get more. After every hospital stay, I would take my little pile of reserves home with me (don’t worry, you can also purchase these online, no need to make a trip to the delivery room). They are fantastic for crafting with children because they keep the mess off your table and absorb the liquid. I lay out one for each child before any messy activity, and it is a quick and easy clean-up, and sometimes I can reuse them again and again. All of my children have been trained to use these when crafting. When I see them pull one out, I know a mess is about to be made. Messes are FUN; with these, they can be stress-free (as can I), knowing there will be little to no clean-up. So make a mess, enjoy the CHAOS, but get yourself some pads first. Haha!
