Found this in my drafts and decided it needed to be published. I love my life, but it is not perfect and sometimes remembering the tough days helps you realize how really awesome the good days are. (11-13-11)
Do you ever go in and look at your children when they are sleeping just to remind yourself how precious they are and how lovely life can be when it is peaceful? I do.
I am not the first to use the term "boybarian" but it is was so fitting yesterday. I had one of those afternoons where I seriously questioned my ability to raise these wild little boys into kind, polite and charming gentlemen.
The low points involved Daniel peeing in the yard in full view of our very proper Korean neighbors (who were walking by with their little girl) and Joel calling his brothers to dinner by yelling "Come and eat right now or you don't get any food at all!" in his loudest, nastiest voice so that I'm pretty sure everyone in the neighborhood heard him.
There was lots of yelling, climbing on cars, running away down the street and general whining and being unpleasant going on as well.
I should have known from the rough way that the day started that it wasn't going to be all kittens and sunshine today (despite the gorgeous weather). I was awakened from my peaceful night's sleep by the sound of doors slamming and boys yelling at each other. If we hadn't been rushing to get ready for school I might have made someone go back to bed and get up on the other side.
After the older boys left for school, I did a little housework and ran to the grocery store then got ready for our preschool at 10:00. My neighbor and I are doing a preschool trade this year. It has been going great until today. Daniel decided to pout and be obstinate almost the whole two hours. At one point he ended up in time out for a few minutes. Eventually we made it through that but it was not the fun experience it has been in the past.
This afternoon I was seriously tired. It was the kind of tired where you literally have a hard time standing up and keeping your eyes open. I decided I would stick a movie in for Daniel and lay by him on the couch to see if he would take a nap (I was out of the running for mother-of-the-year a long time ago, so this wasn't a difficult decision). He didn't nap but I did, unfortunately. When I woke up he had used up an entire red crayon on the inside of our front door and the hallway wall. He had also gotten into the jar of "incentive" candy and eaten more than half of the formerly full jar.
He spent the rest of the day crying, throwing temper tantrums, repeating "I want to watch Ratatouille" about a million times, (and doing his business in the yard) until he finally zonked out at about 8:00.
He has been fighting off a cold and really needed a nap today. I really needed him to have a nap but he did not cooperate.
The other boys were not without fault either. I threatened them all with being grounded at one point but I can't even remember why now so I probably will do another horrible-mother thing and won't follow through. This may be part of our problem. I stink at following through.
Anyway, how did I handle all of this mayhem (since my husband didn't get home from work until around 7:30 and I was left to try to tame the barbarian hoard all alone)? Well, first I fed them. That seemed to help a little.
Then I made sure they were settled down enough that I wasn't worried for their safety. I finally let Daniel watch Ratatouille with Seth and Joel went in the other room to watch a different movie. Then, I ran away.
I left Seth in charge and I went to the drugstore and Target.
When I got home a little over an hour later the house was quiet. David was home and all of the children but Joel were asleep.
Asleep, looking innocent and beautiful and not at all wild or unruly. Until the morning when they wake up and it starts all over again.
Do you ever go in and look at your children when they are sleeping just to remind yourself how precious they are and how lovely life can be when it is peaceful? I do.
I am not the first to use the term "boybarian" but it is was so fitting yesterday. I had one of those afternoons where I seriously questioned my ability to raise these wild little boys into kind, polite and charming gentlemen.
The low points involved Daniel peeing in the yard in full view of our very proper Korean neighbors (who were walking by with their little girl) and Joel calling his brothers to dinner by yelling "Come and eat right now or you don't get any food at all!" in his loudest, nastiest voice so that I'm pretty sure everyone in the neighborhood heard him.
There was lots of yelling, climbing on cars, running away down the street and general whining and being unpleasant going on as well.
I should have known from the rough way that the day started that it wasn't going to be all kittens and sunshine today (despite the gorgeous weather). I was awakened from my peaceful night's sleep by the sound of doors slamming and boys yelling at each other. If we hadn't been rushing to get ready for school I might have made someone go back to bed and get up on the other side.
After the older boys left for school, I did a little housework and ran to the grocery store then got ready for our preschool at 10:00. My neighbor and I are doing a preschool trade this year. It has been going great until today. Daniel decided to pout and be obstinate almost the whole two hours. At one point he ended up in time out for a few minutes. Eventually we made it through that but it was not the fun experience it has been in the past.
This afternoon I was seriously tired. It was the kind of tired where you literally have a hard time standing up and keeping your eyes open. I decided I would stick a movie in for Daniel and lay by him on the couch to see if he would take a nap (I was out of the running for mother-of-the-year a long time ago, so this wasn't a difficult decision). He didn't nap but I did, unfortunately. When I woke up he had used up an entire red crayon on the inside of our front door and the hallway wall. He had also gotten into the jar of "incentive" candy and eaten more than half of the formerly full jar.
He spent the rest of the day crying, throwing temper tantrums, repeating "I want to watch Ratatouille" about a million times, (and doing his business in the yard) until he finally zonked out at about 8:00.
He has been fighting off a cold and really needed a nap today. I really needed him to have a nap but he did not cooperate.
The other boys were not without fault either. I threatened them all with being grounded at one point but I can't even remember why now so I probably will do another horrible-mother thing and won't follow through. This may be part of our problem. I stink at following through.
Anyway, how did I handle all of this mayhem (since my husband didn't get home from work until around 7:30 and I was left to try to tame the barbarian hoard all alone)? Well, first I fed them. That seemed to help a little.
Then I made sure they were settled down enough that I wasn't worried for their safety. I finally let Daniel watch Ratatouille with Seth and Joel went in the other room to watch a different movie. Then, I ran away.
I left Seth in charge and I went to the drugstore and Target.
When I got home a little over an hour later the house was quiet. David was home and all of the children but Joel were asleep.
Asleep, looking innocent and beautiful and not at all wild or unruly. Until the morning when they wake up and it starts all over again.
1 comment:
Oh, Jill...we are kindred spirits. Or maybe our boys are. What a familiar tale! I am glad you have arrived at the stage of being able to leave our children alone for a short time. As for the public display, what's that line from Pride and Prejudice about giving sport for our neighbors?
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