Because of this lot.
It doesn’t matter what I do, it never seems to make any difference whatsover.
Housework, that is.
And it’s so embarrassing.
I hate it.
I hate the fact that there isn’t a place for everything and everything in its place.
It frustrates me that all I seem to do is pick up and put away and pick up and put away and… (repeat until infinity), and nothing ever looks any different.
It’s embarrassing and I feel, quite honestly, a terrible failure. Everyone else’s home always looks so tidy and then I look at mine.
And I’ll admit, when you people paste photos of your children on Facebook, I look at the background to see if any of you come even close to the wreck that is my home.
Rest assured, you don’t.
Short of duck taping the kids to walls (I’m joking – honest), throwing every toy out (I sometimes joke about this and sometimes actually quite mean it), and banning them from doing anything at all ever again, I am pretty much coming to terms with the fact that I’ll always have the kind of house which makes me cringe when an unexpected visitor comes to the door.
It’s a mess.
All the time, it seems.
While the children would probably be quite happy to sit and play Minecraft or horse riding games all day, we still think they should be able to learn skills and be creative.
And this means mess.
So if you come around and see the toys piled up and threads and flour and fabric and art stuff everywhere it’s probably because of things like this…
Anna makes dessert. (Note the finger about to dip into the mixture)
Eddie doing some evening sewing on his machine…
…to make me a pot holder.
Isobel making… I’m not quite sure what but she’s concentrating so it must be important.
Eddie teaching Paddy and Libby how to sew
Libby practises her aeroplane engineering skills (while Cait practises her photo bombing skills)
Sid tie dyes a shirt
Paddy gets his bread dough ready for rising
Isobel, Anna and Libby try to crochet
And that is my excuse.
Hahaha – you’ve visited my house, and I only have a fraction of your excuses!
Your children are beautiful Tania , don’t worry about the house. Not important xx
You are doing great!! I think your house looks amazing! One day it will be perfectly clean and you will be begging to babysit you grand kids cause you will be missing the important part! 😉
We are fully prepared for a constant stream of grandchildren coming through and so a perfectly tidy house will never be on the cards we don’t think!
You do a fabulous job. We are expecting number 6 and our house is fairly small. I feel the same. When unexpected visitors arrive, they must see me squirming because I’m uncomfortable. The truth is, my children are happy to express themselves and feel safe in their surroundings. Although the mess makes me pull my hair out, I’m happy to see them have fun. To me, you’re inspirational. X
It’s a bit of a challenge isn’t it? You want them to have fun but sometimes the mess is too much to bear. Good luck with #6 – hope you have an easy and restful pregnancy – as much as you can at least!
I totally agree with Zena and I’ve seen far worse houses occupied by adults only xx
I have been round your house and it’s NOT messy at all! It’s lived in and what a family home should be like x
So much more fun than a tidy home! Our house is exactly the same, let’s just enjoy it while they’re children, we can have boring tidy houses when they’re grown. x
And then what’s the betting we’ll miss it?
Family is soooo much more than a tidy house. We have 5 children, and there are always toys littering the floor, stairs, and sometimes (OK, once) the ceiling for a couple of months until we figured out how to un-stick it! There is still a mark there to this day. 🙂 My house isn’t dirty (no obvious smells when you walk in etc) but it’s never tidy.
Those sticky men stick on every ceiling but walls… no chance! And they stay there FOREVER. Yes, we know it too!
They all look happy and they are having fun. Your place looks clean and you even have a white/cream sofa! Believe me a white/cream sofa wouldn’t last 5 mins in our house with “only” 9 kiddies – it would be discolored in no time! I have to have wipe clean black leather!
I am totally with you on the housework though – I have worked excessively hard on the house since Christmas and I can see absolutely no improvement, it’s still a tip and so much needs mending & redecorating that it’s heartbreaking.
Our sofa currently needs new covers, the washable ones had a wash too many to survive! It is heartbreaking sometimes when you put so much time and effort in and you look around and think ‘what’s different?!’
*Sniff* happy tears 🙂 Adorable family and thanks for posting this, you are not alone! I’m a mom of 6 under age13 here in the United States. Same here… my house is always getting tidied, swept, vacuumed…but it seems like you would never know… We also homeschool, so add tons of books, school materials, learning things, and children always home. I love it, I love them, but I sure don’t like unexpected visitors…(please call first, I need at least 15 minutes!)
The worst part may be the cutest part: little miss toddler, also know as ‘mommy’s helper’!!!
You need 15 minutes?! You’re doing well! I’m with you on unexpected visitors – please, let’s arrange it first, okay?!
Indeed I too envy those with an immaculate house. Especially those who manage minimalism with kids.!
Life must be so much easier with less.
Minimalism with kids? Is that even possible? We threw out SO much junk in preparation for putting the house on the market and there are STILL loads of things everywhere!