Dear Young Devotee Mothers Who Are Overwhelmed With Too Much To Do:
Please know that there are many young devotee mothers who struggle just like you do. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I sympathize with your predicament, so I have written the following blogpost for you.
My daughter Kamalini has three young children, two of whom are younger than four years of age. I visit her often to help her out, as she is pretty overwhelmed with the tasks of being a housewife and mother of three little kids.
I love grandmothering, but lately, it's become more challenging than I had ever anticipated. I enjoy living in a clean, neat atmosphere, so I am constantly tidying up around her house. Srila Prabhupada recommended that we "leave a place cleaner than we find it" so I am always trying to follow this wise advice. But it's a bigger challenge than I can handle. Someone once said that cleaning a house when toddlers are around is like stringing a necklace with no knot at the end. My daughter's two younger children have developed a habit of immediately undoing any straightening that I do. The three-year-old can pick up a huge box of toys (she is very strong) and dump it out on the floor immediately after I have just picked up all the toys and put them in the box. The one-year-old has a penchant for climbing, and he is frequently found sitting on the upper bunk of his brother's bunk beds, throwing whatever he can find as far as he can throw it and laughing heartily at his monkey-like antics.
For the past few months while living in my daughter's home, I have experienced a kind of deja vu. It feels like a reversion to my days of being a young mother with young children. Life in a home with two wild toddlers is chaotic. I see how my daughter struggles and I remember clearly how it can be exhausting trying to satisfy the needs and desires of young children and at the same time satisfy the needs and desires of a husband, which include preparing delicious meals served hot and on-time, keeping the house and car neat and clean, keeping the laundry washed, dried, folded and put away in closets and drawers (which promptly gets removed and thrown hither and thither by rascally toddlers) and keeping oneself clean, pretty, fresh, cheerful and internally calm amidst the crying of babies with daily injuries or empty tummies. Even one of these is a monumental task in itself, what to speak of trying to do them all in a day (I often feel that 24 hours is not enough), and on top of all this service, maintaining a vow of chanting at least 16 rounds daily!
So I got an inspiration recently. Mother Yasoda is famous for her loving care of little Krishna. Yet, she doesn't neglect her household duties. She is always balancing childcare with other tasks. So I decided I'm going to start praying to Mother Yasoda to help me finish my 17 rounds every day (I chant 17, because for years I couldn't finish my 16 rounds when my babies were small. I just had too much to do. So now, I try to always chant an extra round each day as make-up for all those missed rounds. I'm gradually making them up). I'm praying to Yasoda Ma now to help me do all the services that I need to do--childcare, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and service to my husband, with love and devotion for Krishna--while at the same time completing my sadhana and doing it nicely with love and devotion and full attention.
I trust that Mother Yasoda will help me. She is an ocean of mercy and the mother of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. She understands the predicament of moms, so surely she can bestow her mercy upon us busy mothers (and grandmothers) so that we can accomplish everything we need to accomplish daily within the small span of twenty-four hours.
Please know that there are many young devotee mothers who struggle just like you do. YOU ARE NOT ALONE. I sympathize with your predicament, so I have written the following blogpost for you.
My daughter Kamalini has three young children, two of whom are younger than four years of age. I visit her often to help her out, as she is pretty overwhelmed with the tasks of being a housewife and mother of three little kids.
I love grandmothering, but lately, it's become more challenging than I had ever anticipated. I enjoy living in a clean, neat atmosphere, so I am constantly tidying up around her house. Srila Prabhupada recommended that we "leave a place cleaner than we find it" so I am always trying to follow this wise advice. But it's a bigger challenge than I can handle. Someone once said that cleaning a house when toddlers are around is like stringing a necklace with no knot at the end. My daughter's two younger children have developed a habit of immediately undoing any straightening that I do. The three-year-old can pick up a huge box of toys (she is very strong) and dump it out on the floor immediately after I have just picked up all the toys and put them in the box. The one-year-old has a penchant for climbing, and he is frequently found sitting on the upper bunk of his brother's bunk beds, throwing whatever he can find as far as he can throw it and laughing heartily at his monkey-like antics.
For the past few months while living in my daughter's home, I have experienced a kind of deja vu. It feels like a reversion to my days of being a young mother with young children. Life in a home with two wild toddlers is chaotic. I see how my daughter struggles and I remember clearly how it can be exhausting trying to satisfy the needs and desires of young children and at the same time satisfy the needs and desires of a husband, which include preparing delicious meals served hot and on-time, keeping the house and car neat and clean, keeping the laundry washed, dried, folded and put away in closets and drawers (which promptly gets removed and thrown hither and thither by rascally toddlers) and keeping oneself clean, pretty, fresh, cheerful and internally calm amidst the crying of babies with daily injuries or empty tummies. Even one of these is a monumental task in itself, what to speak of trying to do them all in a day (I often feel that 24 hours is not enough), and on top of all this service, maintaining a vow of chanting at least 16 rounds daily!
So I got an inspiration recently. Mother Yasoda is famous for her loving care of little Krishna. Yet, she doesn't neglect her household duties. She is always balancing childcare with other tasks. So I decided I'm going to start praying to Mother Yasoda to help me finish my 17 rounds every day (I chant 17, because for years I couldn't finish my 16 rounds when my babies were small. I just had too much to do. So now, I try to always chant an extra round each day as make-up for all those missed rounds. I'm gradually making them up). I'm praying to Yasoda Ma now to help me do all the services that I need to do--childcare, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and service to my husband, with love and devotion for Krishna--while at the same time completing my sadhana and doing it nicely with love and devotion and full attention.
I trust that Mother Yasoda will help me. She is an ocean of mercy and the mother of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna. She understands the predicament of moms, so surely she can bestow her mercy upon us busy mothers (and grandmothers) so that we can accomplish everything we need to accomplish daily within the small span of twenty-four hours.
