Thursday 18 December 2014

Is our patience finite?

Most days I'm an alright mum. Some days I would even venture to say a good mum. My children are happy, healthy, nurtured, nourished. But there are many days like today when I'm all out of patience and any little thing will make me snap.

My melt-down is not unprovoked. It could be the 2 year old who fights for ages before letting me strap him in the car seat, the 3 year old who is determined to only do poos in his pants (and preferably at other people's homes). It could be the 6 year old who sneaks a party dress underneath her school uniform. It could be that the 3 of them have disassembled my hoover and only they know how to put it back together, or that I'm sitting typing at the top of the stairs so I can chase the little ones back into their beds when they pop out.

Whatever pushed me to the brink, I'm here now and seem to be staying. I know that as a human being I can choose how to behave and to a certain extent how to feel. I can choose to show more patience. But sometimes it feels as though I have a cup of patience per day, and today's has been all poured out. So instead of a caring, fun mummy the kids get grouchy, sarcastic mummy who wanders around pleading "don't you want to be helpful to mummy?" (and that was only 8.50am!)

I know I'm not alone. Most people (if not all people) with small children periodically wonder what the heck they are doing. Why am I wiping poo off the bath mat? Why am I picking up pieces of cereal from the lounge floor? Why am I cooking from a selection of only 3 meals (pasta, pasta and pasta) to appease my children? Why are my dishwasher and washing machine on all day every day? What is the meaning of life?

So I'll do what I do most nights: pack them off to bed as soon as possible, eat chocolate in front of the telly, and then look at pictures and videos of them being cute. I'll creep in to check on them before bedtime and think that they are so adorable when they are sleeping that maybe I should have 3 more.

H didn't want to come into the house :-)

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