Completely out of character...

I've been realizing some things about myself lately...particularly in regards to my parenting habits. And I have decided that moms traditionally fall into two different camps concerning whether or not "certain" things bother them..ie, the cleaniness of their children and/or home.

The first camp that moms fall into would be...

"I let my kids make crazy kinds of messes, play out in the mud, pour sand over their heads, eat watermelon with a white shirt on, create all kinds of meals with ingredients from the kitchen, and finger paint anytime they wish."

And I know there are those of you out there!

Then there's the second camp..."I pick up the toys the moment my kids are done playing with them...my kids never paint except when plastic is covering every inch of the floor and table...my child's shirt is changed every time there is one spot on it...and, my personal favorite....I can't handle seeing a dirty child at the grocery store or at Target with chocolate or leftover ketchup on his or her face. I just have to grab a napkin and wipe that child's face clean!"

Yup, and those of you in that camp can completely relate!

Any guesses about which camp I fall into?

Before having children, my house had to be SPOTLESS before anyone...and I mean ANYONE entered. I would drive my husband crazy deep cleaning our home before youth group students or our families came to visit. I was seriously obsessive compulsive about it.

Thankfully, with the arrival of our first child, this condition began to change...slightly.

I mean, I still picked up every toy once Sammy was done playing with it.

Now I know what I did with all my time when I only had one child!

I did relax a bit on making sure everything was in its place and dusting every picture frame, but I found myself still flying into a frenzy before company arrived.

And my poor husband would just shake his head...

Now you would think that having three children would have completely cured me.

Sadly, it's not true.

The first few weeks after Hannah was born I tried to keep up...but I really found myself having to let go of a lot of things. Having a newborn who wasn't gaining weight and 2 other pre-schoolers who needed their mommy, forced me to let my cleaning slide. But now, I'm getting the hang of having three and am trying to return to my cleaning schedule.

But there is hope for a borderline obsessive compulsive cleaner like myself!

Take a look at what I've been allowing my children to do lately...

This would be my daughter playing in the sand and lake without a swimsuit on.


And this would be my little guy covering himself from head to toe in sand...


...and having the time of his life, I might add.

By the way, my husband took those pictures. I was chatting with a girlfriend and didn't see what my children were doing...they were supposed to be playing on the playground equipment near the beach...but when Brad told me what they were doing, I took a deep breath, restrained myself and just let them continue playing.

And just guess what I let my children do yesterday! It started with me filling a cookie sheet with a small amount of dried beans and letting Caleb drive his little match cars around in it. Giving him dried beans to play with was a stretch in itself! But they were contained and I told him he had to keep them in the pan on the table.

Well, then Sammy asked if she could make some "pretend" bean soup. I gave her just a few beans, but Sammy was NOT impressed with only having a few. So...I took a deep breath, opened a second bag of beans, and let my children go! I told them they could do whatever they wanted with the beans, as long as they kept them in the kitchen and cleaned them off the floor when they were done.







They had an absolute ball. They played for over an hour...cooking and pouring and baking. And they did an excellent job cleaning up.

I patted myself on the back for doing something I would have never had done 5 years ago.

But, do you notice something? Look back at the pictures... Aside from that first one, there are very few...if any beans on the floor.

That's when I realized I need to let them do this more often.

If not, I might just be raising little, obsessive compulsive clean freaks!