“Nice Versus Necessary”
As a mom, the simplest things in life often overwhelm me. I am late for everything, always worried and anxious about any kid related topic. And, quite frankly, clueless on how other people manage to have a job, kids, a tidy home and clean clothes on every day. At least, I was clueless, until I met my now very good friend from across the road, and she gave me some new advice…
When I arrived in the US, seven years ago from France, my boys were three and two. New country, new home, new town, new everything. And nobody around to help me! I constantly looked like I could not even remember my own name. I think on occasions, I actually forgot it…
I was really struggling because on top of wanting my kids safe and clean, I was also obsessed with cooking healthy meals, having a tidy home (people who know me: stop laughing your socks off, I know how incredible it sounds but I promise, I used to be a neat-freak!!) and a car that did not require a hazmat suit in order to stay alive in it.
As if this was not unrealistic enough, I wanted to get showered and dressed every day AND wear make-up and look semi-good. I had given up on plain-good after my first child was born. Even I could accept that this was never going to happen EVER AGAIN…
So needless to say, I was pretty miserable, always failing to achieve what used to be my norm of basic stuff in a pre-kid life.
As I was venting my frustration to my neighbor, she took pity on me and decided to share some of her wisdom. She, too, had two small kids, and, yet, she was always walking around with a smile on her face, acting like nothing could bother her.
“Listen, my friend, do yourself a favor and start writing lists.” What was that supposed to mean?
I was complaining about not achieving anything because of lack of time, and there she was adding one more thing to do to my already long backlog.
Seeing my puzzled look, she explained that I should filter everything I do by deciding whether it is nice, or necessary. That’s how she analyzed every task. If she decided it was necessary, she did it. If nice, she did not stress herself up and simply forgot about it.
This conversation saved my sanity! I went home and started to draw my lists. The more I thought of the necessary side of things, the more I realized that a lot of it was actually a luxury. So I moved many items to the “nice” column. By the time I was done, it looked like life could not get any better…
My “necessary” list is very minimal: keep kids safe, feed pets at least once every other day, try to be on time at school once a week (I am actually thinking of moving that to the “nice” side). The nice list has got stuff like: iron clothes, eat three balanced meal a day on it. Even “take a shower” has become a luxury! I l love it!
Needless to mention that “tidy the house”, “eat healthily” and “comb your hair” did not even make any list. They are on the “In your dream – never in this world will it happen again” list.
I have gone from “anxious-stressed-all-over-the-place-hysterical-mom” to “zen-relaxed-scruffy-but-who-cares-mom.”
If anyone suspects I don’t wash my hair often enough, I have the perfect cover: I dress in my gym gear all day and pretend I am on my way to sweat some calories out! Works like a charm…except, I will need to find a magic way to develop some muscles WITHOUT actually going to the gym (because that’s definitely not on any list!).
Now that you know my coping mechanism, just remember that if you ever come to my house, and I say stuff like, “I am sorry, my house is really messy today, I just did not have one minute to myself!”, it’s just an old habit of mine that I cannot shake. I actually don’t mean it. My house is ALWAYS that messy, and that’s because cleaning it is nice, whereas blogging and checking my Facebook is totally necessary…
ABOUT NADEGE
Nadege Nicoll was born in France but now lives permanently in New Jersey with her family. She stopped working in the corporate world to raise her three children and multiple pets, thus secretly gathering material for her books. She writes humorous fictions for kids aged 8 to 12. She published her first chapter book, “Living with Grown-Ups: Raising Parents” in March 2013. It is a pretend self-help handbook for children to cope with their parents’ inconsistencies. Her second volume in the series just came out in October 2013. “Living with Grown-Ups: Duties and Responsibilities” has gone one step up in showing parents’ whacky behavior! Although the primary audience for her series is kids, parents are sure to giggle and laugh at their own weird ways. It will be hard for them to tell their kids off with a straight face after they read “Living with Grown-Ups”! Nadege also writes a daily blog for moms who need to smile at every day’s life. She can be found on Twitter, Facebook and her website www.nadegenicoll.com
Photo credit to Jennifer Burden.
Great post!!! It’s so hard to let go of what we THINK must get done and realize IS really important!!! I say get the necessary done and go play with the kids
Nadege,
Thank you for your post! I agree — a shower is a luxury!! Tomorrow is another day… lol!
Jen 🙂
Love this post Nadege – How true!
I am working on refining my “Necessary” list by splitting it between ‘Necessary” and “Absolutely necessary”!
LOL Nadege – I laugh at “taking a shower”. I have started showering at night after the kids are in bed….it has kept me from showing up to work smelly and offending my colleagues 🙂
Wanna know a secret? We’re actually all the same! We ALL imagine that other moms have the immaculate house, perfect body etc etc. The truth is we’re all just doing the best we can … and mostly feeling inferior to an IMAGINARY “perfect” mother!
Now that my children are practically adults (my son will be turning 21 soon and my daughter will be 18 in May) I can look back and realise that none of the things I stressed about were really as important as I thought they were! My children don’t remember the messy house … they DO remember when I played with them! Cut yourself some slack, Mamas!!
I really needed to read this post.
Maybe I need to start making lists too. That way I can stop running around like a crazy person.
So funny that combing your hair didn’t make it to any list!
Ironing clothes – ha – that’s on my nice list too. Actually, I have a whole wardrobe I never wear because it needs to be ironed! Now that I think about it, that’s from before I had kids. After I had kids, I stopped buying clothes that needs to be ironed…and I make my hubby buy wrinkle-free shirts for work 🙂