Sometimes it appears as though there isnt any point in cleaning up the house because the moment youre done picking the things up, cleaning, mopping and sweeping, the kids are going to do their thing and everythings going back tobeing a mess! And after spending a considerable amount of time mulling in the kitchen cooking up a storm, all you get is yuck or I dont want to eat. And just when you thought you could spend a couple of hours relaxing in the tub with a book youve started reading AGES ago, the kids are fighting and tearing each others hair out.

You sit there and wondergosh, is this what I bargained for? Is this what motherhood is all about?

I voiced my concern to a close friend whom I knew wouldnt think I was looney or a bad mother and this is what she said to me, Appreciate the noise and the ruckus that they create now because there will come a time when YOU have to make a whole lot of noise for them to notice you. Its far off in the futurebut the time will eventually come.

What she said struck a chord in me (although I sniggered in her face, rolled my eyes skyward and gave her a yeah, right look) and I came home thinking. The kids were out in the in-laws place, so, the house was pretty quiet then. There was nary a sound to be heard throughout my small but comfy condo. The only sound that I could hear was the sound of the fan spinning madly and my keyboard.

Sitting there, I imagined what it would be like to live in a home like this for the last 10, 20or 30 years of my life. What an unbelievably scary thought? No kids screaming and knocking things over? No children to come complaining to you about how the other siblings have snatched his or her toy? No kids whining and pleading about that extra cookie before bedtime? What would life be like then?

Its when we do this type of forward thinking that we will appreciate the kind of noise that is here in the home now. We may define the noise that they make as stress or annoying but at the end of the day, its precisely this type of noise that we will one day miss.

So, when you start thinking Is this what I bargained for? Is this what motherhood is all about, think forward and youll start wishing that the day will never come.