It is 6 p.m.
I’m in our living room. From where I stand I can see in pretty much every room in our house. Everywhere I look there is some kind of mess. In twelve hours three small children have completely disassembled our entire house. I looks like someone took our house, turned it upside down, shook it and then set it back down.
The good news is, in a few short hours all the kids will be in bed, everything will be put away and our house will be back to normal. Ready to do it all over again tomorrow.
This reminds me of something…
I used to bartend in college. After serving thousands of drinks to hundreds of (ahem) twenty-one year olds, the place was trashed. Everything was dirty. Nothing was in the right place.
But, in a few short hours after the bar emptied out, it would be cleaned up, and ready for the punishment of the next day.
So, here are some of the similarities between a college bar at closing time and my house at 6PM:
Overflowing trash cans- Beer bottles, paper scraps from art projects, plastic cups, dirty baby wipes. They all create a trash surplus.
Messy tables- Spilled drinks, writing on the tables.
Floor = Sticky
Smells- A variety of not so great smells, at the back end of the bar and the back end of my two year old.
Tears- An emotional girl cowering in the corner bawling her eyes out.
Noise- Ears left ringing because of long term exposure to loud noise.
Clothing optional- Chunky guy strutting around with his shirt off or girl running around with no pants.
Bodily fluids- Spit up, throw up. what’s the difference?
Underwear- There is a strong likelihood you would find someone’s undies in the bathroom at the bar and my kid’s underwear in ours.
Come to think of it bartending in college may have been the perfect preparation for parenthood.
-Pete