The danger of assumptions

As a mother of 4, I'm sure that people make assumptions about me all the time.  They assume that I "have my hands full".  They assume that I'm "not coping" because my house is a bit messy (seriously, have 4 children, and you will soon realise that there is no point tidying up during the day because it just gets torn apart straight away!) They assume many things.

So I'm going to lay it out on the line.  Yes, my life is full of heaps of crazy.  My kids have whingy days.  That's heaps of whinging x 4.  And I don't particularly like those days.

But am I not coping?  If you walk into my house and see the mess - why does it seem to automatically indicate my ability to cope with my children?  My house is messy because I choose to read books to my kids during the day instead of cleaning all the time.  My house is messy because I pick my baby up when she cries and give her lots of cuddles.  My house is messy because I play on the wii or playstation with Sparrow instead of cleaning.

So to make the assumption that I'm not "coping" because my house is messy is just not accurate, I am coping.  I am a better mother than I was with 3 children.  I think the more children I have, the better I get at parenting, even if my house gets messier.

So I don't think the problem is that I'm "not coping" with all my children, the problem is that I obviously need a cleaner......