Let Kids be Kids.
Author Alisha Prien
Sometimes there are days where I just say, “screw it!”
Screw the housework, Screw the perfection, and Screw stress today.
My “Screw it” day just so happened to fall on “Mother’s Day”. Instead of pampering myself and getting a cooked meal, which let’s be honest my kids wouldn’t do anyway. I decided to change up the house, make it more about our family, about the kids and a representation of us, which is definitely not perfection.
It was on this day that there was already a build-up of stress and other personal pressures, which made a mess within the house seem much worse than what it was. The Kitchen Table always so white and perfect, had one or two stains on it and the chairs had a couple of scratches on it from wear and tear (children wrecking balls) which annoyed me a lot on this day. I was so tempted to throw it out and get a new one, a perfect matching set.
I took a long hard stare at this table set, and then a long hard stare at the kids fixated on their screens. “Screw it” I yelled, both kids looked up from there screens as if in trouble. I summoned them both into the kitchen area, as I grabbed all the paints and brushes from the arts and crafts cupboard. I handed each of them a pallet with colours, some paint brushes, and I said, “lets paint this in our own colours that best represent our family”. I let the kids completely take over and paint away. There was mess everywhere, the colours were all so wrong, unorganised, and not matching whatsoever. Obviously, there was some areas where I may have added my neat touches here and there, but overall, it was all the kids work. Spencer was even eager to join in, and whilst he wasn’t able to move his hands and arms perfectly, he gave it a good crack! (Mostly painted his face) Always such a happy kid to be around….
Honestly, it was the best Mother’s Day. All of us were laughing and having fun, both kids even put a meaningful quote on some of the spaces which read “Neva Give up”, “Every day is a good day”, and my personal favourite quote (thanks mum) “Stop Trying to fit in, when you were born to stand out”. It is moments like this where I begin to realise that sometimes you just have to let go and give in. Sometimes the best thing to do is to relinquish control, and focus on the thing that is right in front of you…
