After reading Sha's post, and Felicia's, I started thinking about other women I know and how they seem to "do it all." But the fact is, none of us do it "all." That's impossible. I often read MoneySavingMom.com, and I love Crystal's post about priorities, and her list of all the things she DOESN'T do.
So I'm going to tell you what I don't do. I hope it will make you feel better about yourself, without making you think too much less of me...
I do not:
- do crafts. (my house is so bare it would make most of you shudder and cry)
- scrapbook.
- cook anything that takes longer than 45 minutes. Ever. And rarely longer than 30 min.
- exercise.
- "do" facebook.
- return phone calls or emails (at least not very often.)
- clip coupons.
- do my hair more than once a week or wear any more make-up than chapstick and mascara.
- limit my kids to less than 2 hours of TV every day.
- sew.
- iron.
- have my kids in any kind of extra-curricular activities.
- shop at more than 2 stores per week. If I can't get it at Winco or Target I probably won't get it at all, or I'll have to plan a special trip with my husband on a Saturday. Or get a babysitter (which I do actually do quite often... usually a trade, because I'm not made of money.)
- throw birthday parties. If you get a gift and a cake in our family, then it's been a good day.
- make homemade cards.
- have people over for dinner.
- clean the bathroom as often as it needs to be cleaned.
Of course, this list evolves & changes over time. Right now I DO make time for reading. If I want to scrapbook again, I will have to give up reading. And when I quit my babysitting jobs at the end of the school year, I will probably start clipping coupons again. At some point, I'll make exercise a priority again (I do love to run). The bottom line is that everyone has different priorities, and there is no "master list" for what any one person should be doing or not doing.
Just remember that NO ONE does it "all." (At least, not all at once!)
6 comments:
i like your list
Thank you! I haven't posted on my blog in way too long. Mostly because I feel like it has to be the perfect post. Perfect picture and verbage. Partly because I've been too busy trying to do it ALL. Now that spring has finally sprung my list just got even bigger. It's nice to hear a fellow blogger, whom I look up to, reveal she doesn't do it all. Again,thank You!
Great post, Char! I think we always focus on all the things others are "doing"... and forget to think of the things that they've let go to be able to do what they do.
I was nodding my head at a lot of your "don't dos"... I don't do most of those things either, and YES, there is a time and a season for everything. The dos and the don't dos rotate around for sure. :)
It's nice to hear that we can't do it all. Since going to work full time I have been not doing a lot of things. At first I was really stressed about not being able to handle it all and then I realized that I can't do it all and I have decided to be okay with it. It has been kind of hard but mostly I think it freed up a lot of things in my mind that I don't need to worry about those things. I still do try to find time to do the things that I love like sew but my blog has been seriously lacking but it is okay because my blog doesn't really matter. I have kids to raise and it is okay if they don't wear matching clothes. And really in the end isn't going to matter how we spent our time doing the unimportant stuff as long as we spent our time taking care of important things like family.
I hope you get what I mean It is hard to explain. Great job for not letting yourself get down on the things that we don't do.
Brooke
http://makinitdomestic.blogspot.com
Thanks!
I love this post. Too often it is easy to compare ourselves to what others do. There are always trade-offs. Thank you for reminding me.
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