Sometimes Cleaning Up Our Own Messes Is a Little Overwhelming.

Have you ever had a mess get completely out of control? You make a series of little choices to throw this here, toss that there, put off tackling this, shove this other thing under the bed… and before you know it, you have a ginormous mess that is so overwhelming, it’s hard to know where to begin to get things back in order.  (Sounds like a pretty good metaphor for other areas of life, doesn’t it?) 

In today’s video, Isabelle called in an assist from mom. She needed help to tackle the pigsty that was her bedroom.  Of course she had cleaned her own room many times before.  But this time, things had gotten so out of hand, she found herself too overwhelmed to know where to start.  I had asked her repeatedly to get the job done.  But the sheer enormity of the task had given her the “paralysis of analysis”. 

Can you relate?  I can.

Sometimes our kids need us to guide them through overwhelming tasks.  Instead of getting frustrated with their lack of obedience, we need to assess: are they being rebellious? do they lack knowledge needed to do the requested task? or are they overwhelmed and frustrated?  In this case, Izzy was overwhelmed and just needed someone to step in and help.  I was able to help her break up the task into smaller steps and get it done.  Did it take a good chunk of time to get it done?  It sure did.  But we did it together.  And both of us learned a good lesson: it’s GOOD to ask for help.  It’s GOOD to offer help when your child is discouraged.

If you or your kids need a little cleaning motivation, click the link to today’s video!  We hope that this will inspire you and your kids as we look to spring and prepare to declutter and clear out all the cobwebs from winter!

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