Monday, October 27, 2008

I'm Lazy


This is really not an epiphany, just a fact I have wanted to hide from for my entire life. I am quite lazy and a little spoiled. I want things to be easy. I want life to be effortless. I want what I see in other moms, yet I do not seem willing to work for what they display in demeanor and attitude.


Here is the catch. I don't really want to be lazy. I just seem too lazy to change my laziness. Still with me? If I could, I would have a chef, a full time tutor for my children and a maid. Throw in the butler for the times I am too lazy to get up to answer the phone. Or better yet, let the maid get the phone so I do not have to get around to hiring the butler.

Yet I love to cook, and dream of meals from scratch with organic and clean whole foods. I love the feeling of satisfaction you get after a long hard day of housework and how great it feels to "just be" in the house you have just cleaned. I LOVE being with my kids and homeschooling them and seeing the ah-ha moments of their learning process. All that being said, I am sabotaging my own desires by my lack of "get up and go" and it is hurting my household.

Today I was Jekyll and Hyde. I woke up with a plan. I was going to have a good and selfless attitude while teaching my kids, sprinkled with a heavy dose of patience. Check! Then we would all do our chores while the birds sang along with our efforts. It rained here today. And the stupid birds never showed. And the kids did not cooperate with chores. And Mommy yelled. Again. And it was all due to my incessant laziness.

I can make my house look like a palace when we have an event or company coming. I run like crazy and get the job done. I am SURE this does not go unnoticed by the offspring. We are not total slobs and do the everyday things, but it is common for the laundry to pile up, the pots to wait a day or two (since they do not go into the dishwasher) and the corners to get very dusty. Shoes will lay unattended for days, ignored by every family member who walks by. I would love to say I mercifully sigh and pick up the shoes, but usually I just kick them out of my way (and half the time they are probably mine).

I have not reflected to the kids the person I want them to become, I take the lazy route and wag my finger at them when they do not listen to my instructions for how they should be. I am a bit ashamed and embarrassed by that fact.

Proverbs 13:4 says, "The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied." I am feeling like that sluggard lately, I want a lot of things, yet have not worked terribly hard to get them while bemoaning the fact I did not succeed. I guess it is time to join the land of the diligent and "go to the ant".

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why does it seem that every other mom has it together except me?!? I think there has to be a middle ground between being lazy (which, if given the chance, I would lay around in my pj's for half the day watching sitcom reruns)and what seems like the perfection we see in other people. For me, I think I need to grow up. I still want to be a child in some respects; have the independence but not the responsibility. Your not alone!

Angel at Aduladi' said...

"I still want to be a child in some respects; have the independence but not the responsibility."

Carolyn you nailed it 1000% percent. That's the way I feel a lot of the time.

Susie said...

Sadly, I can identify 100%. The thing that has me feeling guilty lately is that when I vacuum, the kids want to know WHO is coming over. Is it that obvious???

You aren't alone, my bff! I'll pray for you -- please pray for me, too! :o)

And I think I might print out that Proverbs verse and hang it all over the house as a reminder to myself.

Anonymous said...

Don't beat yourself up to bad... I think that society has really gotten to the point where it is so hard to be a Mom. It used to take a community to raise a child. Now, many times, the job is left to a Mom who is trying to be a Jack of All Trades while mastering none. I know what you mean about the lazies - but I don't think that it is really that. I think we get so overwhelmed that our brain starts putting on the breaks.

It got REALLY bad for me this summer - and I did the absolute bail out and sent them all to PS. I feel guilty about this, but I have to say that my household is a little less drama filled.

Hang in there chick. I'll be praying for you!

((((((((((many hugs))))))))))
Mamma D

Samantha from Colonial Curve Cottage said...

You know what? We need to have a sister hood of women who love each other instead of compete. I'm hearing a lot of love here and it's awesome! If the truth were knowen about most women, I think we'd see they don't really have it all that together, they just look like they do. That being said, there will come a day when our houses are silent and very tidy and we will be bored out of our minds. Hang in sister chick! It's ALL good!