For the past week, we have had no household help except for our handy man, who thankfully washes our cookware and runs errands for me sometimes. Our helper is on leave till the first week of June, which means 2 more weeks of this — no one to clean for us, cook for us, wash & iron our clothes for us. I am in the Philippines and I grew up having a nanny who was at my beck and call, and helpers who did everything for us. And if you know me, I’m really not that domesticated haha. I like to cook only when I feel like it or when we host small dinners for our friends. I don’t like washing dishes and most people don’t want me to wash their dishes either because I take sooooooo long. My hands cannot handle hand washing loads of clothes due to my proneness to allergies. I cannot, for the life of me, iron clothes properly. I make them more wrinkled! It takes me forever to clean and organize stuff too.
My mom was the working kind (but now retired) and she did not train me to help around the house. Um, let’s just put it this way. I am more domesticated than she is haha. And yeah, maybe we were spoiled a little bit in that sense. I know I know, I’m a brat! Or at least I used to be. But when you become a wife, a mom, and you start managing your household, you can’t BE a brat! Taking care of my kids is one thing. It comes naturally for me. But it’s a whole other thing to do chores around the house.
The good thing about all this is that I can see the flaws in our existing system. It pushes me again (because I’ve done this before but the system was not maintained) to think and reorganize so that things will be more efficient around the house, with or without a helper. It pushes me to give away or throw out what we do not need anymore. It pushes me to clean things and areas that have been overlooked or neglected. It pushes me to teach the kids to help out, to clean up their own messes, to put things back where they belong, to wash their undies, to clean themselves up. It pushes our family to work as a team.
Sounds like I got it all figured out? Haha. HECK NO! The house is still in quite a mess, we still use disposables for our meals, I have still yet to execute some of the plans in my notebook, I still get frantic and stressed out, and I am still going to hire a cleaning lady to help me clean every so often. I love, however, the things that I’ve been learning. Little tips here and there from friends, shows, books and the internet. I’m encouraging myself that SLOW IS FAST. It takes me a while to think and go through stuff because I tend to think about everything, as opposed to one thing/area at a time. But I’m hoping that when I do finish, it will be worth all the trouble. I want to learn more as I go along (so please give me tips if you have any), and I’m excited to finish! I have a long way to go, but I’m hopeful.
So no, I am no SUPER MOM. Nor do I want to be. I can handle being one some of the time, but not all the time. I salute the REAL SUPER MOMS out there, who literally do everything for their families. God bless you indeed! 🙂
Phoebe's Sari-Sari Stories 
If you really want a good way to approach all the house-stuff you could check out http://www.flylady.com
I’m sooo jealous of all the help you have. sigh.
thanks! will check it out more when time permits. yeah, i feel blessed that we have help around here. i can’t imagine the stress of doing literally everything, but i admire you and many women like you. 🙂
I hear ya! I also wear my super Mom hat only when our reliable helper takes her annual vacation. That’s the only time I really cook meals every day, haha. Yes, it’s a good opportunity to inspect every corner of the house and re-assess what’s working in the current system and what’s not. It’s tiring and stressful but I don’t mind going through it. Eventually we’ll also have to let go of our household help so it’s important to learn how to do the chores on our own.
way to go phoebs! 🙂
haha i don’t even cook meals everyday! i cook 3 or 4 meals at night when kids are asleep, and hope it lasts a few days. have to do that again tonight. i find that it works for us. i find myself always behind on everything though, especially after our 3-day youth conference Ignite. God help me! 🙂