A while ago, I was talking with my husband while preparing dinner, sharing that I was feeling a little frantic about keeping up with the housework. While he was on vacation from work, and I from schooling the kids, he helped a lot around the house. Oh, I have to face it: I got positively lazy!
I thought things would snap back to normal when work and school resumed. But it hasn’t. Far from it. I feel like I am in a constant state of scrambling to keep up—and failing miserably. Laundry, dishes, meal planning (and making)…I get overwhelmed.
It shames me to even type that. I give advice to homeschoolers all the time, encouraging them to give themselves grace, reminding them that children, homeschooling and clean don’t easily go hand in hand. I hear my own words rattling around in my head by the end of the school day, when the house is mired in clutter and I know my husband is going to walk through the door, wondering the plan for dinner.
The other voice echoing inside me says things like, ‘You’ve been doing this for almost a decade. Get it together. You should know how to do this by now. If you knew anything, at the very least your kids should be better equipped to help.’
Gosh, that voice is mean! Sometimes it gets really loud, too.
Thankfully I do have a supportive husband with whom I can talk. I praise the Lord he hasn’t ever expected perfection from me, even when I was a little insulted that he didn’t think I was capable of it. I have certainly at times convinced myself that I at least should be perfect, even if I haven’t ever achieved it.
He reminded me that evening in the kitchen that we both work full time jobs. He works out of the house, and I school the kids. He let me know that he doesn’t mind helping with housework. It is a shared responsibility and he doesn’t expect me to carry the full burden.
What a load off! Maybe I can shut that voice up and focus on the wonder of learning, even with the dryer calling my name.
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