Ever wonder why you never get any relaxation in during a kid-free afternoon? Turns out, there is a children’s book that explains it pretty well.
As a mom, I have read many versions of “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” books. If you haven’t read any of them, you should. The books are quite entertaining! If you haven’t, let me divulge a little bit about them before I tell my rendition of it.
So there is a mouse (and a moose, and a cat, and a pig–you get the idea). It starts with the mouse wanting a cookie. That cookie reminds him he is thirsty, which makes him ask for milk. Once you give the mouse the milk, he will want a straw. As to not spoil the book, it continues throughout like this.
I’ve experienced scenarios similar to this as a mom, so I feel the following will be appreciated by a handful of you!
If You Give a Mom a Kid-Free Afternoon
- She will probably decide to engage in Netflix and chill (and by Netflix and chill, I mean watch something on Netflix while chilling with a yummy lunch…that is still hot!)
- When she heads to the kitchen to make that grilled cheese, she will see that the griddle is dirty. She will turn to wash it off and see that the sink is full of dishes.
- Deciding to get these dishes done now, she soon finds that the dishwasher is still full of clean dishes.
- As she goes to put them away, she sees that the container cabinet is a mess, thanks to her hubby. She decides to fix that problem now.
- Once the sink is empty, she notices all of the food that people “accidentally” forgot to scrape off their plates first. She then grabs a rag and takes care of it.
- Since the sink looks so clean now, she should probably clean the counters off, as well.
And the Kid-free Afternoon Gets Worse…
- While putting the rag in the washer, she figures: why not start a load of laundry?
- Realizing that there is a load of rugs in the dryer, she decides to empty it now rather than later. But wait…she wanted to clean the floors before returning the rugs to the kitchen floor!
- She gets out her vacuum to clean up the edges of the floor where the food (and dreaded dog hair) tries to hide.
- In the midst of vacuuming the floor, she looks up to the top of the cabinet to see the dust that has been screaming at her for the past two weeks. Since the vacuum is out and already in the kitchen, she vacuums the top of the cabinets.
- As she vacuums the top of the cabinets, she notices the drink containers. The drink containers remind her that she promised to make her children some lemonade.
- Once she’s made the lemonade, she opens the fridge to put it away. That is when she sees the dried food on the shelf. She cannot leave it there in good conscience.
- Now she pulls out the shelves and washes them. Using a rag for this just reminds her the load of laundry needs to be switched over.
- As she switches the laundry over, she sees the rags that she cleaned the counter and sink with. That will remind her she still needs to clean the griddle so she can finally make her grilled cheese.
- Once she cleans the griddle, she is able to make that delicious sandwich– just as her family walks into the house!
So chances are, if you give a mom a kid-free afternoon, she probably won’t use it for herself!
