A few days before Christmas, our dishwasher stopped working. Given all the hustle and bustle of the holidays, and the fact that it’s not a “necessity,” it was quite some time before we were able to get it fixed. And so, for about six weeks I got a chance to experience hand-washing the dishes every day. The novelty of doing something in a “vintage style” wore off pretty quickly and I longed for our dishwasher. I couldn’t believe the amount of time it was taking me to soak, wash, and dry all of the dishes we used on a regular basis. I felt like I wasn’t getting anything else done!
Finally, the parts came in, and the repair man was booked! I had a working dishwasher again! And much to my surprise, I missed hand washing the dishes. You see, I had taken to putting the baby in his high chair and letting him have a snack while I did the dishes. I’d put on music and I’d sing and dance for him in between sink loads. He’d make a huge mess with his puffs and yogurt bites and there were so many smiles and lots of baby giggles. My original plan for this blog post was much more dishwasher-focused. I wanted to talk about the modern conveniences that we take for granted today that our foremothers would have given their eye teeth for. But that wasn’t the lesson that not having a dishwasher taught me. What it taught me was that I was getting so caught up in making sure that my cleaning was done, and the grocery shopping was taken care of, and everyone had clean underwear, that I forgot the main reason for me being a stay-at-home Mom; being a mom. I nearly wasted a gorgeous afternoon cleaning the toilet instead of taking the baby and the dog for a walk. I was letting my anxiety and my ideas of what a perfect housewife should be get in the way of enjoying my son’s childhood.
And the end of the day, my house is never going to be 100% spotless, and I may forget an item at the grocery store from time to time, but that doesn’t matter. That’s not what my little guy is going to remember when he gets older. He’s going to remember the time we spent together and the fun things we did. He will remember that his mommy loved him more than anything and made sure he was as happy as she could possibly make him. So let yourself off the hook once in a while, turn on some music and wash a few dishes by hand. Enjoy slowing down a bit and soak in every moment of parenthood while you can.
