Play time or cleaning time? Mom’s self questions. When you are a stay at home mom and your children are looking at you with the puppy dog eyes to get you to play what do you do? You know that there is housework that needs to be done and you also know that if you don’t get the time to play with them you’ll feel bad later. So as things get worse and worse around the house you play and feel bad that the housework never got done or feel guilty about your children losing time with you. I have a solution to that problem. I use that solution everyday.
My two boys depend on me playing with them. I have a house to clean and I have articles that I want to write. I also have other things that I need to get done as well. I want to give my boys all the time that they need but most of that time I had told them that I had to clean up before I could play. Now I don’t do that any more. I have started a system that helps me clean and get things done. I know that a lot of parents keep trying different things and that some times they work and others they don’t.
I give the boys the opportunity to play among themselves for a bit while I start the cleaning. Then after about half an hour of cleaning I join my boys in whatever they are playing. I make sure that I give them a full half an hour before I start cleaning again and that is how I work this system. At the same time if I get help in the cleaning it takes me half the time of cleaning and then the boys get that extra time to spend with me. They enjoy every minute. During nap time or quiet time is what I like to have I do half cleaning and then resting myself, while the boys are sleeping or playing quietly in their rooms.
Because of the fact that I get more cleaning done while they are doing that I get to spend extra time with them after the time that they spend there. I get more done knowing that the boys get just as much of my time if not more than I spend on clean the house and worrying about what people think about the cleanliness of the house. That makes the answer to the question as both. That is a great feeling and I hope that everyone finds the same.
