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A new measure of efficiency

6/18/2014

14 Comments

 
“How is it Thursday already?”

“I’ve achieved nothing this week.”

“We still need to do the x, y and z that have been on the to-do list since January.”

Sound familiar? It’s just chronic, isn’t it, as a parent. It feels like the to-do list adds items to itself when I’m not looking. The pile of bills never gets sorted, the pull-along car I’ve been ‘working on’ for M for months has actually gone backwards (it's missing a wheel), and I barely know what’s going outside my front door, never mind the rest of the world. Work? Ha. Ha. Ha.

And yet it still feels like I’m constantly rushed off my feet. I find it infuriating, this sense that I’m trying to do a million things at once but don’t do any of them properly. I make more lists, more meal plans, more attempts to reorganise my schedule because surely, surely I’m supposed to be able to fit it all in somehow.

Except I never really can. But instead of getting frustrated about it, maybe we simply need a new way to measure our efficiency. Forget new clients won and scientific papers published, here is the amount of work Mr P&P and I shift in an average month:

bottoms wiped: 80

meals prepared: 62

story books read: 56

toddler meltdowns navigated: many many many (and increasing in frequency)

dining tables wiped: 62

floors swept:
8

nappies rinsed: 140

toys tidied away:
kilos and kilos

boo-boos kissed better: 90

moments spent worrying: too many to count

snotty noses cleaned: see above

washing-ups done: 36

laundry loads washed and hung and folded and put away: 20

songs sang: 350 at least

pretend coffees drunk: billions I tell you, billions

nursery drop-offs and pick-ups: 32

pokey sticks searched and found:
25

hours spent negotiating with a pint-sized tyrant: never-ending

baths/showers administered: 15-20

ingenious toddler activities dreamed up: 30
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Cleaning up this lot takes patience and precision
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Oh the ingenuity - who knew toothpicks could be so much fun?
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Bonus toddler-entertainment points: stick AND foamy thingies to collect AND a balloon!!!
And all of that despite:

hours spent sleeping: way, way too few…

See? Here at P&P Towers we are the PICTURE OF EFFICIENCY. What amazing feats have you achieved so far this month?

14 Comments
seychellesmama link
6/18/2014 04:13:20 am

love that you counted all these things up….amazing all the stuff that we do without really even realising it (albeit feeling totally exhausted from it!) xx

Reply
Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:17:16 am

Exactly - when you think about it, it turns out you do soooo much stuff! x

Reply
Jenny link
6/18/2014 07:40:31 am

Wow it really is amazing to write it down and actually see how busy our lives really are and wonder wow no wonder the to do list never gets done but we are still gettting the regular things done and not noticing. Amazing post. I feel exhausted just thinking about my own list. eek. Thank you for linking up to Share With Me. and giving me a better perspective that I am doing just not doing the extra bits too busy with life's bits. hahaha #sharewithme

Reply
Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:19:51 am

Oh no, sorry, I didn't mean to make you feel more exhausted! Haha. It is just so time-consuming isn't it, looking after little kids. I see the extra bits as a bonus now rather than something I 'should' do!

Reply
A mum in London link
6/18/2014 09:10:46 am

Wow, toddlers are soooo much work (I knew that, but it's another thing to see it written like that). Of all that, which we do here too more or less, the one I sympathise with the most is the pretend teas/coffees drunk. Such a waste :)

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Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:21:23 am

Haha, too true! We are working on making real ones though, so you never know - one day I might get my cuppa in bed with milk AND sugar!

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Rachel - 3yearsandhome link
6/18/2014 03:49:01 pm

This is SOOOOOO true. I sometimes get to the end of the day and feel like I have accomplished nothing but then I remember that I've got an 18 month old and a 3 year old and both have been fed, watered, walked, napped, my house is clean and I still (mostly) have all my marbles. Success!

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Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:24:20 am

My dear, I think that is a MASSIVE succes. Especially the clean house part. My toddler is like a mini-hurricane and there is no way I can keep up with him as well as all the other things that need doing!

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Hayley from Home link
6/19/2014 02:52:02 pm

Haha, I love this! I feel just the same, I constantly feel like I'm playing catch up, my house is always upside down but they I think, well, I kept three little people safe and (relatively) happy today, that will do! x

Reply
Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:26:51 am

Absolutely, that will do very nicely indeed. Especially with THREE of them! I get frustrated with that feeling of always playing catch-up, but really, who cares but me? The toddler sure as hell doesn't care there's stuff piled up everywhere...

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Carie link
6/19/2014 04:03:52 pm

Oh this is so true! There's so much about parenting that's just never ending. I think it's the fact that you can never plan to do something and know that you'll get to do it because you just can't predict toddlers that makes it hard to cross anything off the big to do list!!

Reply
Eline @ Pasta & Patchworkq link
6/24/2014 04:29:58 am

Oh the big to-do list just makes me want to cry! the Bean is always guaranteed to get ill when I have something important planned, and then it all just goes out of the window. But I guess that means extra-super-bonus points when you finally do manage to cross something off ;-)

Reply
Merlinda Little (@pixiedusk) link
6/20/2014 12:40:33 am

They just pile up those chores. I mean I am doing them and yet I can never keep up. #sharewithme

Reply
Eline @ Pasta & Patchwork link
6/24/2014 04:30:43 am

Nope, never ever!

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