Losing My Mind

Ummm..... I haven't been stellar parent as of late. Ummm... I've been very frustrated, very often actually. You see, I can not leave my children (read mostly: child) unattended for more than 1 minute or 'things' happen.

You know what they say about things changing at the mark where the child has been with you as long as they've been in other care....it appears to be true. It was true for our daughter - she became much more relaxed and happy. It's true for J. as well - he's much more relaxed as well.....too relaxed for a single parent!

Anyway, when E. first came home, one of us had to be with her at all times or she would hurt herself. When J. came home one of us had to be with them every second or they would whale on each other (to put it mildly). I assumed however that there would be a point where I would be able to, oh I don't know, take a quick pee without having to clean up some disaster when I got back (spilled milk, juice, water, soup; broken glasses, plates, bowls; dumped water all over the floor because they filled the bathroom sink and splashed in it; toothpaste on the wall while I went to get a rinse cup; still in p.j.'s when the sibling got themselves dressed an hour ago; chips, raisins, cereal, (or whatever you can think of) all over the floor because they wanted more; etc; etc; etc). There was a brief, blissful period last month where I could actually run upstairs to grab my toothbrush as they ate breakfast and 'things' did not happen. Gone now....all gone.....gone.....gone.

And so, to return to my original point, I have not been a stellar mother these days. Ummm.... being alone, 5 O'clock mornings, parent/teacher conferences, the Febuary grumps at school (which means kids who are getting on each others' nerves = more conflicts), upcoming report cards and nothing for Valentine's are really not helping to calm my nerves. Anywho, I have been heard to utter the following phrase often enough that my son has now started to use it. Ummm......to be fair...... he's heard it aLOT more often than his sister over the past 2 weeks!

And yes, he knows what it means:

Yes, you see, when I have just spend my Sunday morning cleaning (during which time I've had to stop at least 15 times to 1. break up an argument; 2. check to see what they are up to; 3. talk to the peeps, Eli, Penguin, Cindrella, the prince or Super Why and/or 4. wipe various body parts (not my own) and then someone dumps half a container of APPLE JUICE on the freshly washed floor because they couldn't wait for one minute until mom could come and help them.....yes......then, I do truly feel like I'm going to LOSE MY MIND and I tell them!