Half assed parenting

Crazypixie always starts the day beautifully clean from the preceding evening’s bath and dressed in a colour co-ordinated outfit. I carry her down to the clean kitchen and after breakfast we open her toy box and take some toys onto the rug.
By the time himself gets home from work however, she is usually just in vest and top, trousers have either been covered in banana, pee, unidentifiable muck or a combination of all three, and sure there is no point replacing them a few hours before bedtime. Her face has usually taken on an orange tinge by this stage too from whatever tomato based product she ate and her hair has been fashionable styled with the now familiar mixture of porridge and yoghurt.
The kitchen looks like something from Gordon Ramsey’s worst nightmare and the living room like Santa’s workshop after a week of work to rule by elves when the cleaning staff was on strike.
As for mummy………well she hands over crazypixie muttering that her nappy may need changing and collapses with a cup of tea in front of the PC to catch up with all her virtual friends.
That night order is restored and preparations are made for the following day’s activities.

A fairly typical day for a stay at home mum you may say, but why do I feel it could be better?

I enthusiastically start each day like the New Year, full of plans and optimism but things seem to deteriorate as evening approaches. Now, we usually have great fun together, eat well and generally have what I’d consider a good day. It’s just that some inner bitch is always there to remonstrate with me for finishing my cup of tea instead of changing a dirty nappy immediately, for heading out for a walk with crazypixie on her bike instead of doing the mornings wash up or lurking online instead of catching up with the ironing during nap time. It may be the catholic upbringing, the feminine mystique, that particularly Irish ‘what would the neighbours think’, or my own very well developed sense of inadequacy that has me at my low points questioning my parenting abilities.
Thankfully I have a wonderful husband, family and friends who are very forgiving of my shortcoming, and most of all I have a very happy daughter.
I think the way forward is to embrace the chaos as being part of happy family life, and to stop putting pressure on myself to be the ultimate domestic goddess, perfect parent, successful woman, sex goddess, and all round superwoman.
Ok, that’s enough of that……….I’m going to hang out on the floor with himself and crazypixie for an hour and I may even go to bed early without doing any ironing, washing or baking…..