~ Let them make Forts ~

With my very best Marie Antoinette impression of "Let them eat cake"
I say... "Let them make Forts"... although I'm not wearing one of those cumbersome corsets that make your waist look 12 inches round, gee on second thought do you know where I can get one of those?


When you come into your living room and find it like this, you might instinctively react with a desire to shoot yourself. After that feeling passes though you might actually feel a nostalgic joy in the creation. I'm sure you can remember how much fun it was to create these monstrosities, ahem, I mean masterpieces.


The pure excitement of a hidden hideaway in your very own living room. A place to scurry away toys, books and treasures. You maybe giggled and told secrets with your siblings, pretended you were a spy or something else very secretive.


This might be an annoyance to us mothers at times considering every blanket in the house has been utilized along with every clean towel and pillow because well "momma there has to be beds." Not to mention every toy imaginable has now joined the underground hideaway as well.
But should we really sweat this?

Does it really matter if its going look like a bomb went off in here in about 1 hour when King Kong a.k.a the toddler gets tired of just merely hiding in the fort and decides destroying it would be far more interesting.
In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't.
When my boys were very young I decided I never wanted to be an uptight mom who never allowed her house to get messy, who found it more important to have everything look perfect then it was to just let her kids play.
At times I can find myself reverting to that and it never feels good. My children aren't as joyful, or creative because they are always worried about making a mess.

I read an article once a few years ago in a mothering magazine that I love. The mother was discussing the importance of being a friend to our children. Hanging out with your children, spending play time with your children.
In Titus 2 we are told to love our children. It seems insane that we need to be told that when most mothers would die for their children. But the Greek word for "Love" in this verse is philoteknos~meaning to be a friend to your children.

She went on to say that many mothers are more of a friend to their homes than they are to their children...ouch that hurt. I underlined that sentence right there and then and decided that would not be me.
Yes, we must keep house, but if you notice in Titus 2 that that is further down the list from being a friend to our children, God always puts things in order of importance.

So mommas..."Let them make forts," and don't forget the cookies for your hungry little stowaways.