I know a handful of women who wanted to be mothers when they grew up.

Not me.

While I love being a mother now, I didn’t spend my childhood and teenage years dressing up in sweatpants and nursing bras pretending to change diapers.  Of course, I also didn’t fantasize about writing marketing emails or making killer sales calls - so there’s that.

No, my career fantasies were much more glamorous.  It’s been interesting to revisit these dreams over the last few weeks and remember how badly I wanted to be certain things.

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I’m not going to say anything Earth shattering today.

Hold back your shock and awe, I know.

But really, we are constantly being told by someone that we need to “take care of ourselves” and “take time for ourselves”.  Surely, I cannot be the first person to give you this message.

And yet, it’s worth repeating:

It’s OK to spend time alone.

In fact, you should spend time alone.

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I am not a domestic diva.  I have no shame about my disdain for housework.

And yet, I don’t like living in a mess either.  And, truth be told, it only takes two kids a few days to turn “a little clutter” into a disaster zone.

Recently, my personal life got messier than my house and I found myself craving order and cleanliness more than usual, and with one less adult to help with the chaos.  Luckily, I stumbled upon the infamous FlyLady web site and some great tips that helped me get the mess under control.

I tell you all that to tell you this:

I’m about to give housekeeping advice.

Oh yes, I am.

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Let’s talk about multi-tasking.

As women, we’re supposed to be masters at it.  As mothers, especially, we boast of both the need for and our ability to excel at it.  We juggle more balls than a circus clown, and we do it with panache!

I think multi-tasking is overrated.

And I’ll be keeping my working mom card, thank you very much.

Sure, there are times when it is necessary to do multiple things at once.  I can make dinner and dessert simultaneously.  I can clean up my kitchen in between changing over the laundry.  I can hold a conversation with a four year old and a nine year old and a telemarketer at the exact same time, and catch nearly all of the details.

Yes.  I can get more than one thing done at once.

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My kids and I are experimenting with a fancy schmancy time management system to help everyone get through their morning and bed time routines.

More on that at a later date.

Today, I come to you for advice and creative ideas.

You see, part of this new fangled time management system involves keeping track of how many days we get it right, so to speak.  This concept of keeping track of good days, accomplishments, etc. is pretty universal.  I’ve heard of it used for everything from chores and school work to attitude and behavior.  One of the key components of these systems is offering your child(ren) some type of reward.

And that’s where I’m stuck.

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