Mom Leaves the Kitchen Messy
A Mom Turned Her Back on Her Dirty Kitchen Because "Not Today, Satan" — Can We Get a Hell Yeah!?
Janelle Hanchett, a mom and blogger at Renegade Mothering, did something on Feb. 26 that mothers everywhere have been daydreaming of: she took a peek at her disorderly kitchen and swiftly walked away from it. In a Facebook post, Janelle explained why she chose to put off cleaning the mess rather than dive right in.
"I left my kitchen like this today. Yep, Monday morning. Starting out the week with two days' worth of dishes strewn across the counters. It doesn't feel amazing. I don't adore it, but sometimes you have to just walk away," she wrote. "I walked away last night. I walked away from doing them myself, even from having the kids do them. My husband was doing other work. I 'should' have been working, too. But I walked away."
Despite the fact the busy mama doesn't remember what she did instead, sometimes taking one task off your to-do list does wonders for your mental load. "Why? I have no idea why. I can't even recall what I did instead. And still, sometimes, for whatever reason or no reason at all, you have to just walk away. NOPE. Not today, Satan."
In case you were wondering, Janelle doesn't harbor even the slightest bit of grief about leaving the mess behind: "I don't feel guilty about it. I don't feel a heavy weight of defeat. I feel more of a sense of F*CK IT, here we are. Today, I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING FOR YOU HUMANS OR THIS HOUSE. We'll manage it later. We always do."
And no, as far as this mama is concerned, she doesn't need a reason not do something. That's something all mothers should keep in mind when they're feeling overwhelmed:
I walked away because I'm human, and I get to act like one. I get to "fail" or "just not do" and I get to do that for whatever reason I choose, or no reason, and it can be somebody else's problem or nobody's problem and everything — and everyone — is going to be fine. We don't have to be on our game all the time. In fact, sometimes we can leave the game. We can forget there was a game in the first place. We can burn the game down from the inside. (That last one is possibly a bad idea.)
She also advised other moms to take a page from her book: "Lowered expectations have been one of the greatest things kids have forced me to face. Particularly for myself. Behold. The abandoned kitchen. Go team."
