Sabbath day sanity

[LaurieMomof3]

I need some btdt motherly advice.

I hate Sunday afternoons! I try to make it as much into a Sabbath day as possible, but then the children destroy the house so bad that it takes a while to recover. If I am not on top and cleaning and insisting on help cleaning, this place is a madhouse. Everyone wants extra snacks and special treats like hot cocoa - which is fine since they don't get hot cocoa everyday, but 2 minutes after I make this treat, they are playing in it with straws and spoons. Seth started up a crazy art project with lots of scotch tape, cut up magazine pictures and crayons. There are little bits of it everywhere. It is depressing to look around the room every Sunday afternoon and think - THIS is what a day of rest brings me? I am much more rested on market days when we are out shopping, come back home and put groceries away. How can I learn how to obey God and keep my sanity on Sunday afternoons? Maybe I should find a church that has childcare on Sunday nights and go to service. That should cut half of this mess out of the way. My church does not have Sunday night services.

Thanks!!

 

[JayCeeGirl]

I personally don't believe that as Christians we are called to keep the Sabbath, but if that is your conviction, then that is your conviction. I would make sure you do family activities during this time like playing board games, going to the park, bowling, just go on a walk, etc. This way there is little clean up involved. And how old are your kids? If they're old enough to be using scissors, they are certainly old enough to help with cleanup.

 

[Neenie1]

I personally think that there is no harm in cleaning up on a Sunday afternoon.

I do it every Sunday afternoon. I just don't spend the whole day cleaning. We go to church in the morning, come home have lunch, kids can do whatever they want, however they have to clean up afterwards. We try to make it a family day as much as possible, I think yesterday just mostly involved church and hanging out watching movies in the afternoon (we had a wet day) All I did at the end of the day was ask the kids to clean up the mess. (but there wasn't much mess lol)

 

[JulySheMustFly]

I understand.
We do take a sabbath each week. It isn't always on Sunday but we take a day of rest each week as a family.

That day still consists of general tidying to make our home comfortable. Kid's who start craft projects have to clean them up themselves. DH or I supervise. For us that means that we don't split wood for the fireplace, do laundry, mop, go big grocery shopping etc. However, we still cook, clean up our dishes and put things away when we are finished. Yes, our home does look a little extra lived in on Monday morning but that is because it was lived in together as a family. It is the one day a week where my entire family is all home at the same time. That in and of itself will make things messier.


Would it help if you looked at the day of rest not as a day off of mom duty but rather a day where family and friend relationships are the focus? Is some extra mess worth it is your child has created a memory of mom or dad reading a story to them with a cup of cocoa or drawing a family tree together etc?

 

[jgonz]

IMO, if you hate something, then you need to change it. "Taking a day/afternoon off" should be for You, not your kids at this point.

Scripturally, the Sabbath is a day for rest, a day that you don't do ordinary work. (Granted, I believe that's Friday night to Sat. night, but that's not the issue here.) Tons of cleaning isn't resting and falls under "ordinary work" for me. Obviously things like changing diapers or wiping off the kitchen counter if someone spills are definate "to do" things, but giving the kids projects where they can't clean up after themselves is just Creating more work for you.

I don't have any specific ideas, but my advice is to pray about this and see what the Lord would have you change to make things easier for everyone~ 'cause if You are tense/stressed, the rest of the household is going to feel it as well.