I was thinking today about a woman I knew when Charming and I were first married.  She was this amazing person who was nice, friendly, always helping and serving other people and she still managed to teach part time and take care of three sons each 20 months apart, the oldest being about 4 years old.

I remember going to her house one day to drop off some diapers for a needy family in our neighborhood.  I walked in and was shocked.  Her house was a mess!  There were toys everywhere, a dirty diaper on the floor and her husband and sons were just watching cartoons.  I thought it was weird (not that my house was super clean, even though I just had one infant at the time) and a little gross.

I thought of her today as I picked up old diapers off my bedroom floor and cleaned up other messiness.  My children and husband are often in front of the tube in a house full of chaos.  Cleanliness is not always everpresent here…

The point?  The lessons learned?

1. Don’t judge.  Whenever you judge another person’s mothering or homemaking skills, you will find yourself someday with the same problem.  (I also remember mentally criticizing a woman for her lack of ability to control her son’s biting and I later had a biter on my own hands…)

2. Don’t worry about what people think of your messy house.  If they think it’s gross or nasty, then they just haven’t been there yet.  They will my firend, oh how they will. And then they will be posting on their blogs about how awesome you were and yet how messy… well you get it.