A few weeks before Easter, my family of six ventured to the bookstore for coffee (Seattle's Best) and well, books of course. While Erik perused the technical section of the store, I stayed with the kids in their designated area awaiting my turn to find a new novel for myself. They searched for their own personal favorites and I noticed a display of Easter-themed books. Most didn't center around the true meaning of Easter, which I suppose is to be expected in our world today. I made up my mind to choose one that did celebrate the truth and one that was mere fantasy. We added them to our stack and before long were checking out. From there we headed to the park where Erik and I would talk while sipping our cups of Joe and the kids would run like wild beasts all over the grounds, playing games and following wherever their imaginations took them.
My husband is the one who typically reads to the kids before bed, so it would be more than a week before my three-year old crawled onto the sofa next to me saying, "Momma, will you read this book to me, please." I pulled her into my lap and began to read, "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes". As you can surmise, this wasn't the one about the true meaning of Easter but the pages held a profound message for me. With "Blankie" tucked under her chin she listened intently to the story of a Momma Bunny who always dreamed of growing up to be an
Easter bunny. That dream seemed as though it would never materialize because, bless her bunny heart, she ended up with 21 baby bunnies to care for. Suddenly I felt very close to this brown haired Mother with all her kids, sacrificing her dream to raise her children. The other bunnies scoffed at her dream and told her how foolish she was to have so many children. I wanted to gouge out the eyes of those wretched bunnies, but the Mother bunny just took it in stride...loving her babies with all her heart. Then, over the pages we watched her train her children to help take care of the home. These two did this and these two took care of that....the book told of every child's job and they all shared the responsibilities of the home. I sat in awe that a children's book could be speaking to me like this.
The story ends with the sweet bunny becoming an Easter bunny because she put her all into teaching her children...and then they became the reason she was able to fulfill her dream. Long after my daughter climbed from my lap and ran off with her book, I sat on the sofa, my mind attempting to process what I could do with this information. I've lamented often that the free-time I have I either spend cleaning or feeling guilty that I'm not cleaning. I've also attempted many times to enlist the help of my kids, only to run out of patience and give up on the notion. However, armed with Momma Bunny as my example, I went to my computer and drew up a schedule right then (remember, I'm a "list-maker") .
Since the beginning of May I have been teaching my children how to perform my FlyLady lists. With the list divided amongst us, it should save us all time once they become proficient at them. For now I'm doing parts of it with them, checking their work and keeping after them to complete the tasks. However, I believe very soon I'll be able to trust them with their portion. We've even set up an allowance system so the kids are also earning extra spending money in the process (another opportunity to learn money management skills).
The house is already staying neater because the entire load isn't on me. They are doing everything from dusting to laundry! I am hopeful that very soon I'll have more free-time to go after my dream of publication. In the meantime, I feel good about training my kids to become more responsible people. After all, being a wife and mother was my ultimate dream growing up and I'm already living that.