When neat freak meets motherhood...

Hi, my name is Kirsty, and I'm a neat-freak-aholic... 

(Ok, so I know that's not technically a word, but I don't think 'neat-freak' quite covers it... the 'aholic' party just give it that extra oomph.)

I decided long ago, that if I ever starred in my own reality show, or if some kind of bio pic was made about me and my monumental entrance into motherhood, it would be titled "When neat freak meets motherhood- Two worlds collide", I'm not sure who would be roped in to star as me in that second scenario... all I know, is that I want to have some kind of singing and dancing montage, but I'm sure by the time Hollywood approaches, I'll have all of those finer details sorted out. 

I love cleaning, neatening, tidying...The phrase 'A place for everything, and everything in it's place' comes to mind. Give this girl, a packet of pine-o-clean wipes and a scrubbing brush, and you've made my day! Put it this way, these last few years have seen a number of new items enter our home, of which the most exciting for me were, a Dyson vacuum, a steam mop, a steam cleaner (so I can totally steam the couches and whatnot), but by far the MOST exciting item to join my family, is a Dyson stick vac! Holy McGoly is that baby the best thing since sliced bread? Actually, come to think of it, sliced bread isn't really that good, I'll say it's the best thing EVER! That little piece of heaven gets used so often around here, that Abbie is as obsessed with vacuuming as she is with mobile phones and remote controls.

Playtime vacuuming.

I'd say I've always been pretty neat and tidy, although you'd have to ask my dad to confirm that one. Pre-kids, I would look forward to Saturday morning the most, that was when I would get up and clean the house top to bottom, then I could spend the rest of the weekend enjoying the place in all of it's clean and sparkliness... During the working week it was an entirely different story, my house would end up looking like it had been ransacked by half a dozen pre-schoolers, but I was able to overlook it. I can however tell you when it all changed for me... I went from full time work, to Californian lady of leisure in the matter of a few weeks. We were living in our McMansion, and I literally had nothing to do with my time. We had what felt like 1000's of cable channel, but there's only so much about the Kardashians that any sane person really wants to know. I passed my time by going to the gym for at least 2 hours a day, my dining table was covered in 5000 piece puzzles, and I cleaned. I was channeling Monica from Friends. It got bad. 

Then we have these darling little creatures called Abbie and Eliana. I don't know how many times people would say to me "You won't be able to keep that up with kids"... I would nod and smile, but deep down I would be thinking, "How can I not? This is me!", and at first, you're kinda lulled into a false sense of security. A teeny tiny baby creates more laundry than an army, but they aren't on the loose yet, they're not wiping snot on your shirt, or blowing raspberries on your clean windows. Then one day, it happens. Just this morning, I've watched one of my children pick her nose and wipe it on the sofa, the other one has quite literally placed every single toy, block and book in her mouth, and together they have destroyed the entire playroom (cue Kirsty's internal struggle of epic proportions). It's all in good fun and learning, and a few germs never hurt anyone, but the snot thing is just plain gross.

Complete destruction of the playroom happens in approx 3.5 seconds.

​In saying all of the above though, I don't think I am any less in the 'being a good mum' side of things, cleaning and tidying doesn't take propriety over the girls, I've just had to learn how to prioritise, and there's nothing like getting thrown in the deep end, and the 'sink or swim' approach. It's just like some people find their happy place in preparing amazing meals, or coming up with scrumptious baked thingamabobs, and some people love wandering up and down the aisles of the supermarket, I can't think of anything worse. I hate having to come up with dinner options, and it's relentless (!!) and dinner happens every. single. night... without fail. At this stage, Abbie's so used to the pack away routine she does it on her own at times, it's just a part of their daily life, the same as baking cakes and biscuits might be if i had any inclination to do any of that (happy to eat it though FYI, just in case any of my friends need a quality control officer).

I'm a firm believer of training them young!

There are so many adjustments to make when parenthood comes around, and for me, this is one of the more random ones...
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