Not Mom Enough

I'm not sure how other large families do it. Everyday I feel like I get further behind with things, despite each kid having a handful of chores to do it just seems like the house is never clean enough. Then I check Facebook and all the large families I follow have spotless houses! It makes zero sense to me. Am I just not "mom" enough? One mommy blogger said it's all about getting them to do chores, well fabulous all of my kids do their chores, today is actually chore day and when we get home from gymnastics they each have a list they need to do and Tyson has some to do when he gets home from school. They'll all do their chores and the house will still be a disaster area, I haven't decided if it's because we're that messy or if we just have too many people fitting into one area-we have nine kids and a three bedroom house so I'll let you figure that one out! Today, however I've made a decision. I'm not going to care if our house isn't as spotless as I would like, I'm not going to freak out over the toys in the living room, I'm not going to get mad that my four year old didn't clean well enough. Instead I'm going to thank my kids for trying, tell them they're doing a good job, and tell them how they can improve. I feel like sometimes parents forget that with these "simple" chores kids are just kids at the end of the day and won't do it right the first time, sometimes they won't do it right the second time either. It's a learning experience. Jason and I agreed to have the kids do chores to teach them to earn money and to teach them how to do simple things they need to do to make it in the world, like washing dishes and helping make dinner. These are two things everyone needs to do, no matter what you do in your life you'll need to cook in order to survive and after cooking you'll have tons of dishes to do! They might not get all the spots on the dishes clean and I may have to rewash them, but at the end of the day my kids are helping keep this house running smoothly. As much as I would love my Pinterest perfect house, I would rather have my kids remember how I got down on the floor and played with them instead of yelling at them to clean their rooms-even though I do that too from time to time. So to any of my mommy friends who feel they're not "mom" enough today. Go play with your kids, you're always mom enough to them.