Making It Up As We Go Along

The one thing about being a parent is, there is no rule book, no set of instructions given to us post-delivery by the doctor “Congratulations, new parent! Here’s the book on how to do it. (slap on the back) Good luck!”

Uh, yeah, kind of doesn’t work like that. Sure, there are things that go without saying – if they’re sick or hurt, tend to them, and fix it. If they’re hungry, feed them. I could go on about ‘The Basics’. But the rest, it’s the rest that is up to us to figure out our own way.

I look forward each day into finding a new way to do things, especially with a bigger family than most. Perhaps a way to go about it that no one else has thought of. At least, I keep myself going that way, thinking to myself ‘Hey, that’s a cool way to do it, wonder if anyone else knows about this?’ (Like my mayonnaise discovery, I’d like to think I was the first, but I bet I’m not. Ah well.) Other days I feel somewhat defeated, exhausted, wiped out, wishing I had a magic wand to wave with my overworked arm, or a simple twitch of my nose that would get the job done.

As you know, I’m expecting my sixth child any day. And of course, towards the end of your pregnancy, you’re dragged-under-a-bus tired. And big, even if you haven’t gained much, you still feel enormous. I could seriously fall asleep standing up if I stood still long enough. So of course, due to this development, suddenly housework becomes more daunting day after day, so the need to be creative to get the job done is warranted.

One of the first thing people ask is, how I manage the laundry with all of my children. Laundry isn’t a big deal at all! Sure, there are seven (soon-to-be-eight) people who wear clothing day after day that need to be washed, but the act of putting them in the washer, converting to the dryer (or being hung up) and then folding isn’t a problem. Not in the least. The problem, actually, is getting it put where it’s got to go. Heck, getting anything to be put where it’s got to go is the problem. Anything.

I make the beds everyday. I know you must be saying ‘that’s a lot of beds to make!’ but really, its not a big deal. If they haven’t done it themselves or attempted to, it isn’t a big deal. The big deal is the picking up of the items to get to the bed, or the picking up the dirty laundry that for some reason couldn’t be carried the few feet to the basket that’s an issue, especially at this time, watermelon-in-the-belly big, bending over just isn’t cutting it. So I’ve become a great foot-picker-upper. Using my toes like fingers and moving items of clothes up to my arms, preventing from having to bend.

But that isn’t all. My latest invention, to get all the clothes from upstairs, where they are found, to downstairs, where the washer and dryer is, without killing myself, is to throw them down the stairs. Heh. It makes me giggle thinking about it. Here I am, holding my 20 month old, huge stack of clothes I can’t carry, with or without her. So what do I do? I enlist her help, and we chuck the laundry over the first railing, down the stairs. Once at the bottom, she proceeds to help me get it into the laundry room. Neat, huh? Probably not the first to come up with it, but hey, it works, it helps me.

What things have you come up with that help you? I’d love to hear some of what you do to help you get the job done 🙂