Sassy Mama: Middle of the Road

I used to really get a bug up my butt about those who had "middle of the road" tendencies. I was opinionated (okay, I *am* opinionated) and those who sat on the fence seemed to have none. That bugged me. Badly. I wanted to scream, "Pick a side already!"

However, life has a way of teaching you how many shades of grey there really are and I have softened a lot in what I believe is right and wrong...knowing that there are things that I just don't understand because I haven't been there.

Which is why tonight's Wife Swap was so interesting to me. (Reader beware: Boring Synopsis Begins Here) In a nutshell, one wife had three young sons and a very lax attitude towards manners, discipline and housework. Her own childhood consisted of strict regimens that eventually made her feel almost like a failure if she couldn't always be perfect. She decided that it would be better for her kids to enjoy childhood and to above all, have fun. But unfortunately her best intentions backfired and she ended up with unruly boys that were nearly out of control. Enter the etiquette-teaching mother from Mississippi. She, too, has three children. Her family eats off of china plates and silver ware every night and dress formally for dinner. They have strict rules and regimens. You can imagine what mayhem took place in each household when a ettiquette-loving lady takes on a bunch of little wild cowboys and a relaxed "Roseanne-esque" woman tries to get the uptight family to have some fun.
But in the end it was awesome. The fun-loving mother taught the regimented family how to lighten up a bit and the ultra-conserative mother gave the boys the boundaries and rules they were craving. And then each mother continued to implement those things that added to their family life that the other one had started. Happy ending. (End Boring Synopsis)

That got me to thinking about how we run this household. We take a moderate approach which means that somedays my dining room table will have stacks of stuff I'm sorting through, items that are in transit to another room (much like people waiting at a bus-stop), stacks of folded laundry and somedays, even some dirty dishes from the previous dinner (gross, I know, especially since I'm usually the one who gets to handle those dishes). Other days it might actually be scrubbed down and cleared off. As far as conduct, it is hard because our boys have SO much energy. So it usually goes as follows:
1-If you must burp outloud, say excuse me. They know that it isn't polite and should they ever have a girlfriend from a conservative family, they better learn to burp quietly.
2-Put your used dish in the sink and rinse it off. This is a recent accomplishment for us with the two older ones.
3-Bring your dirty laundry to the laundry room. Do this often, hopefully daily, but I'll settle for a few times a week.
4-Put your toys away in the evening. I can't handle toys on the living room carpet after 5:30 p.m. This doesn't always work as visitors to our home can tell you, but at some point, they pick them up or risk having their toys meet the garbage can.
5-Quote Eminem, Kid Rock or any other possibly "objectionable lyrics" and watch mom come unglued. This becomes a game for them, which is bad and sends me into fits. So...we are working on this.

The truth of the matter is that we are, like most other parents I believe, just trying to stay on top of the crap. So yeah...you're going find socks (both clean and dirty) stashed in odd places that we haven't yet gotten to. You will most definitely meet our most persistent and present pets, aka crumbs.

The vacuum cleaner? Well, it never gets put away so get used to seeing it as a constant decor item in the living room.

Jackets are on the backs of chairs and there are probably a few glasses on computer desks or windowsills that we have used within the last 24 hours and just like our dining room table "bus-stop" clutter, they are just waiting for either Phil or I to come around on our twice daily "dirty dish round-up."

The linoleum, most assuredly, will be sticky.....somewhere.

It basically boils down to us living haphazardly but functionally. We don't have our kids polishing silver but we also don't let them scoot by doing absolutely nothing. The best we can hope for is that we are training them on how to take care of themselves but not sliding too far towards laziness or ultra-strict regimens.

It's a constant adjusting of our "parental steering wheels" to stay on the road and somewhat in between the lines. And sometimes we like to pull right on over at a vista point and enjoy the view.