A Club

I think I’m going to start a club.

Are you interested in joining?

I can’t quite decide what to call this club. Maybe everyone can toss a name in the hat and we can pull one out or vote or choose the sixth one according to alphabetical order. Some ideas I have thought of are, “The UnSuper Mom Club” or “My Messy House Club” or “I Have No Idea What’s For Supper Club”.

I really don’t have time to start a club, because I am not Super Mom and my house is messy most of the time and too often I don’t know for sure what our supper is going to be.

The part I like about starting a club is that I think the people who would want to join would be able to feel what I’m feeling. I would have people I could lament too, and they would so totally get it. And I’m guessing that they would like chocolate just like I do. Just think, a club that would get together to lament and eat chocolate. Surely, I could find at least a couple of members!

What would be ideal is if I could afford to hire the maid to come clean my messy house, while I’m gone to club meetings.

Brownies. We could have brownies at club meetings. And milk. That would be healthy. Or maybe that would be a good supper menu. Good as in tasty, yes. Healthy according to the four food groups, not so much.

I’m not sure why it is that I feel like everything should be so perfectly in place all the time. Our home is usually far, far from that ideal. I’ve noticed it doesn’t bother my kids for everything to be helter-skelter. They just live and enjoy what they’re doing.

Now, I do believe that order and organization are good things. I don’t believe,however, that a crabby Mama because everything is in frightful disarray, is a benefit to anything. Yet, some days I feel like this is how it goes. Arise, straighten house, do laundry, put stuff away, fix food, put stuff away, tell kids to put stuff away, food again, put stuff away, fall into bed. Next day-repeat.

It makes me stop and think about something one Mom said to me when I was a teenager.

She was a busy Mom with four kids and I baby-sat for her kids one afternoon a week and in the evenings now and then. They lived in a neighborhood with other families with kids, so they had friends and neighbor kids in and out of their home fairly often. Their house usually had dirty dishes needing washed and laundry that needed done and toys throughout. But these kids were happy and had a lot of fun. Their friends were always welcome and no one seemed to worry about the mess extra kids would make. Let me repeat, they had fun.

I was having a conversation one day with this Mom. I don’t remember exactly what our discussion was, but it had to do with keeping a neat as a pin house. I do remember what she said. She said, “When I am old and dying, I don’t think I’m going to say, Oh, I wish I had cleaned house more.” Her words have stuck with me. There are many days I wish my house was exactly in order. But, her words have a lot of truth in them. And her kids had fun. If my house was always in order like I picture it, I think it would mean a couple of things.

1. That there were no children living in this house

or

2. Is anyone in this house having fun?

So, maybe if I get around to starting a club and can find anyone to join, maybe I will call it “The Having Fun Household Club”. Just maybe that would be a name that would fit. And instead of lamenting? You guessed it. We’ll eat chocolate and just have fun.