Single Mums

I need a time out. I haven’t had a day without kids for I don’t know how long and I’m getting to that point where I just need a break. Yes I’ve had a night here or there where one or two of them have stayed overnight with their grandparents, but never all three at the same time, and even when they stay overnight I still have to run them to where ever they need to go before or after.

The thing it though, that at times it’s not just me, the three of them can only spend so much time in the same house before it becomes world war three. They can’t even talk to each other without sniping. While I’m at the point where all I really want to do is ignore it and them, I just can’t. Unfortunately they’re now too big to send for a time out (not that it ever really worked when they were little anyway) and all they do is yell at each other more. Or ask why I’m not doing anything to stop it.

All I really want is a day without the yelling, screaming and throwing of things. It’s not too much to ask is it?

I try to talk to them, I try bribing and I try laying on a guilt trip, all of which work for brief periods of time - at least until one of them looks the wrong way, touches the wrong thing etc.

I’ve got an early start for work tomorrow, so I’m thinking I may just go to bed now and let them sort themselves out. As long as the police or ambulance aren’t called I’ll be happy.

Technorati Tags: disicpline, single parent, time out

Ahh shopping. If there’s one handy tip as a mum that I could pass on to others it would be this. Whenever possible leave your kids home if you need/want to go shopping.

Now I’m not much of a shopper at the best of times. I’m one of those get in and get out as quick as I can types; whether that’s food shopping or clothes shopping I don’t much like it. It annoys me when I see things I’d like to have but can’t afford. It annoys me when people dawdle along in front of me and it annoys me when I can’t find what I want as soon as I walk in a shop. Now magnify all those annoyances by 100 and that’s what it’s like to shop with kids.

Since I became a mum I vary rarely go shopping with my children - or if I do it’s usually a one on one thing if that particular child needs something in the way of clothing etc - I suck at guessing the right size - ’specially when it comes to shoes. When my son was still pram size I used to take him on occasion. But the twins, well I think they came once and that was it - not that they were naughty, but the bloody pram was too big. I’d drop all three off at my parents house and take off to get my food etc.

But tonight, well tonight I had all three with me and I was again reminded just why I don’t take them all at once. Two of them needed more school shoes and the third had to come cause I just wasn’t going to go home from school first to drop her off.

Now the getting of shoes wasn’t too bad - it was the whining of how thirsty this one was and how hungry that one was - since as they explained to me - I can’t expect them to be at school all day and not be hungry or thirsty - me pointing out the lunch I made them, the drink bottles they took or all the water fountains that can be found at school didn’t seem to mean that much. Anyway, we’ve got the shoes and on the way out I bought them a bottle of water just to shut them up (it’s a long drive home.) So the kids are now re-hydrated, they have new shoes so I don’t have to hear about how they’ve got this wrong with them and that wrong with them and I think it’s time to get home. But nope…

My son decides that he wants to check out the xbox games - the one downside of him working - he now has his own money so I can’t use that as an excuse not to go into that shop. He goes in there and the girls whine about wanting to go home cause they’re going to starve to death if they don’t get something to eat soon. There’s a whole big thing about my son not being able to get the game he wants at this particular shop, so I decide to be a nice mum for a change and on the way home we go past another place so I detour so he can have a look there. You’d think I was the meanest, most horrible person on earth when I do this, because he gets everything while I never do anything for the girls. This in turn causes my son to mention how he has to buy everything he wants with his own money - blah, blah blah . the worst part of it all is that the radio in my car has shit itself so I can’t turn the music up loud to ignore them.

Anyway, we finally made it home, the whinging, whining and unfairness of it all has passed and I once again remind myself never to take all three with me at once - at least until necessity forces me to again, probably within another couple of months when they’ve grown out of the shoes I’ve just bought them.

Technorati Tags: kids, shoes, shopping, x-box

When you first become pregnant you often hear untold horror stories of sleepless nights, constant crying and how bringing a newborn baby home means your life will never be the same again. While for the most part that is true, my kids were generally pretty good sleepers and really only put on a crying perfomance if they felt their basic needs weren’t being met. However…

No one warned me that having three teenage children under the same roof also means sleepless nights, constant crying and whining and that often I feel like I’ve stepped into an alertnate reality as my life certainly isn’t the same as what it used to be. I’m sure I was never that bad during my teen years.

While my three are really pretty good (they don’t get into too much trouble, they play a lot of sport etc so they are incredibly active, which also means less time for them to do things a lot of teenagers do) but when they decide to turn it on I often wonder where I can escape to.

Teenagers, bless their feral little hearts, are a breed of their own. Once those hormones start flying, and it doesn’t matter if they are male or female, they truly become different people to those loving, caring, thoughtful kids of a few years prior. No longer as a mum are you light of their lives, instead you’re just the person that can get them from a to b, provide them with enough food to fill the bottomless pits that are their stomaches and make room for them and their similarliy homonally challenged friends to take over your house.

Of course in between all those fights over not having time to drop them off at X, telling them you can’t afford Y even if their friends do have it, explaining that z is just not possible at this time, if you’re really lucky you may actually be able to have a conversation with them, and it’s at this point you realise your child of yesterday is growing up and you’ll see glimpses of the adult they will soon become.

Technorati Tags: growing up, parenting teenagers, single mums, teenagers