I Surrender

Yesterday at playgroup, a friend of mine said something that to me was revelatory:

A housewife as three main responsibilities: 1) Play with the kids; 2) Cook dinner; and 3) Clean.  The only problem is there is time to do only two of those things in a day.

It’s true. If I cook dinner, my house gets messy.  And if I clean the house, I don’t cook dinner.  Not playing with Emma is not an option.  I don’t want to be remembered as a mom who only cooked and cleaned.  I’d let everything go to play with Emma, but at the same time, I want to have food on the table and I want to live in a clean house.  And I don’t want to hire someone to clean my house, even though most of my friends do and swear by it.

So this week’s plan:  I surrender.  I’m not going to try to do it all in a day.  I’m going to cook dinner every day this week except for Friday, which is going to be my cleaning day.  That’ll be a good time to eat leftovers or use a prepared meal from Trader Joes’s, or, hey, eat out! Wish me luck.