Life without a maid has been good and bad. At first, we went through sadness, then shock, then denial and numbness, then we became pro-active and now, we’re coping. Yeah…..although the home looks akin to a land fill from Cambodia, the kids are still alive and we have no cockroaches or creepy crawlies in sight yet. And although the mess is so bad that you would imagine a snake living under all that clutter, we are still surviving. I am slowly but surely getting rid of STUFF. First out, the toys…..oh, yes. I am emotionless when it comes to toys. We keep the doll house and the Lego and some dollies and cooking for T2’s sake but beyond that, I hold no sentiments over their play things. My true calling believes that children do not need toys at all. AT ALL. Sorry, ToysRus and Hamley’s. I am getting rid of all our toys and I am not buying new toys. NO. NO MORE.
I will buy books but not toys. I may buy jigsaw puzzles but not toys. I may buy board games. You get the drift. Heck, for the Unschooling in T1, she’s designed her own board game, so seriously do you think she would have had the initiative to do that had she been at school and had lots of readily available entertainment on hand? I don’t think so.
My day now consists of waking up at 7am, I do some reading for half an hour till the entire household wakes then make breakfast. Whilst at breakfast, I already start work by going through my work emails and responding via phone as necessary. After breakfast, wash up, house chores for an hour then exercise. Before I can barely squeeze much work in, I’m due to prepare lunch. I work and multi-task wherever I can, whilst waiting for pasta to boil, whilst in the toilet, whilst the kids are finishing up their lunch…..After lunch wash up is when I really get a chance to work proper without interruption. Kids then get up to their own play agendas and I work till 5pm when I start thinking about dinner. Whilst I cook, they have their showers and after shower, it’s dinner time. Whilst they eat, I am still working and I work right through till 8pm when I start chasing them to brush their teeth. The Hubs will roll in about 9-10pm and does the dinner dishes after his solo dinner. He also puts the kids to bed after his shower if I am not feeling up to it. It is a 30 minute job which can potentially turn out to be a 2 hour nightmare. Thus I hate bedtime with kids. I wish there just was a remote control OFF button so at 8pm every night, I could just go BEEP!!! And silence will envelope my being…….
No such luck.
So I continue with every day life working right through to midnight or beyond. Usually till 2am, my standard time, he time that I can no longer stay awake. Some days I work less and catch up with laundry or whatever it is that requires catching up on. I have lowered my cleanliness standards much but what choice do I have. Until we decide what exactly it is we want, I will continue to be the maid. Plus we are off on holiday soon so not much point in starting a new routine only to be broken.
But you know what? I love life without a maid. Somehow it’s liberating. I know exactly where stuff is now. I know exactly what I have and I know when food is starting to run out and exactly what I need to buy. No wastage. Zero. I’ll bet our food and water bill will see a dip real soon. That surely must be good news. The kids are also learning to be responsible. T2 has started carrying her crockery into the kitchen after she’s done. Tonight was funny because she carried a bowl of unfinished MISO soup to the kitchen but half way, Daddy appeared and she forgot she was carrying the bowl of soup and jumped up in excitement.
SPLASH!! All over herself……
She started bawling her eyeballs out because she is not one to like being dirty. There was also fear I assume that Daddy might yell at her for doing something so silly but nay, how could he? He would never do that. It was an accident and no matter how much we tried convincing her that it was just an accident and that we still loved her heaps, she continued to cry……
Until I offered her some chocolate mint cupcakes.
**************************************************************************Who is Mamapumpkin?
Mamapumpkin is a former Design Architect turned Multi-Million Dollar Digital Entrepreneur. She sets out to prove to all that you can have anything and everything that you want; if you have that fire of desire burning within and the drive to work hard. Even better with much love.
Mamapumpkin has not only grown corporate businesses successfully in the past and doubled her salary 5 times over 5 organisations but has grown THREE BUSINESSES to 7 FIGURES within an 8 year period. She now shows others EXACTLY HOW after retiring her own husband from employment. He is now the official dog walker, family driver, chef and THE BEST FATHER to their two girls and THE BEST HUSBAND to the woman who CHOSE HIM!
Mamapumpkin is the girl who has nothing but fights for everything including YOU. She is idealistic in her desire to put unbelievable amounts of money and extrardinary happiness into the lives of good people so we can change the world together believing in happiness for ALL. She strives to impact lives authentically wanting to reduce poverty cycles and enable quality education for all and always supports the voiceless. She believes we can all have a life of our own desires to enable real contribution into the world. But first, one needs to understand what this all means.
A beautiful life without limits.
If you wish to learn how to propel your life forward guaranteed, be brave to take action. Mamapumpkin's purpose is to build people. Her gift is to help them UNCOVER their HIDDEN GIFTS. She operates fairly and always leaves an impression. You either love her or not and she is alright either way.
She is a living testimony that women really can have a lot. Being financially and time free has enabled her to travel the world anytime, anywhere, doing anything with anyone, as she spends most of her days with her children, having fun, supporting others wherever she can. Also having fun.
Bravo! Letting go of the maid is one of my medium term targets. Though I do have my panic moments wondering how I will cope ( I’m a FTWM of 2 kids below 5 with some flexi hours), but I think the benefits of seeing your child become independent and being in control of your household far outweighs the physical clutter of the home. Hope my plan works out soon. Hang in there!