{YML Voices} I Knew I Was A Mom When…Bathtime Became Full Of Surprises

by Aisha Greene

I am organized.

I am neat.

I respond well to predictability and order.

I pick out my clothes for the upcoming work week on Sunday nights and iron them.

I am THAT person.

And now….I am a mom.

Children can flip your world upside down and when you are an “A” Type personality that appreciates order… well you have to learn to let go a little and just laugh. I remember one of my defining moments as a mother that gave me a reality check about my need for “order.” It was a moment that taught me that I cannot control everything. Everything is not always going to be neat and I will do anything and everything for my child now that I carry this wonderful title “mom” with me.

It was a lovely day in New York City. My daughter just had a lovely dinner and I was preparing her bath. Here is where the story gets a little TMI. We were in the initial phases of potty training. I plopped her on the potty and she created a great “project” for toilet class. I filled up a warm tub of water and put her in the tub. Innocent enough. And then, I saw the face….The strain….The urge to create another project. No, I thought… Impossible! She just made a project and it was massive…. Massive. I yelled her name…. She just looked at me with doe eyes. I went to grab her in her bubble bath of fun and as I went to reach in the water….There it was. Another project.

My organized clean world came crashing down on me but all I could think about was getting her out of there. I got her out. I drained the tub. But now…Guess who had to clean that tub out? That would be Miss Neat, Clean, Don’t deal with Dirty Aisha. There I was picking up the remnants of the project, wiping down the tub and laughing in the meantime…. My laugh had officially changed and you know what? I was ok with it. Sometimes, a little mess is ok. Sometimes we don’t even have a choice… I am a mom.

Aisha Greene is a lawyer, wife, mother, Brooklynite, blogger, neat freak who just started Hartlyn Kids (www.HartlynKids.com) an independent children’s book publishing business with her pal of 10 years. You can find her blog at www.hartlynkids.blogspot.com