Priority and Presumption

So I just realized the post title could be a Jane Austen novel.

I wish I'd read AWH six months ago. I think it would have been so helpful. I thought I was too tired, and needed to rest more. Little did I know.

The sisters talk about how to manage one's time, the importance of doing so, and the priorities a Christian woman should maintain for herself and her household. Spiritual and moral concerns first, social and intellectual after, and the gratification of desires third. I find their instructions helpful though it does sting a bit to realize how much I have mismanaged my time over the past nine months, and especially the months preceding Stefan's arrival.

I am glad to say that my son is doing much better. I am a little confused about how much I can get out and do when it interferes with his sleeping. Did mothers in the Beecher clan ever get out? They speak of giving and receiving visits. I wonder how this was possible. Perhaps they left the kids with servants? That is not to say they had it easy. Again, I didn't have to make my kids' clothes or wash them by hand. The sister's plan for regulating one's weekly life included one day for washing and one day for ironing. I wonder how many women do that kind of thing. I almost never iron.

I have learned lately not to presume a generality. A lot of marketing is done to make you think everyone has or does something. Everyone doesn't. I won't presume all mothers spend one day washing, or that most mothers have a day set aside for that.

The sisters are kind enough in their instructions to say that just starting to do one thing is enough at a time. For instance, setting aside the leisure time of each day for a certain task. That is encouraging. Maybe that's a place I can start.

I must also add that for there to be any kind of regulation in any household, the kids have to be on some kind of routine. I have just realized lately that my son must be swaddled to take a nap. If he is, maybe we'll get on a schedule. But I positively could not get anything done there for awhile. So getting babies regulated - and I mean that in the kindest way - is a priority task for mothers. How do to it is a source of MUCH disagreement, and consequent confusion. I follow one method, did it wrong, and ended up with kind of a mess. I am willing to admit that it was partly my fault, which hopefully will help lessen the confusion for others who seek my advice (should they). Whether or not it is presumptuous to try to tell someone else how to get their child regulated on a feeding schedule is the subject of another post, or perhaps, another blog. I do not feel that writing a book is presumptuous. One has the choice to pick it up or put it down.