Being a parent is a wonderful thing, but some days I just want to get away from it all. I frequently struggle, but I hear there are these mythical amazing mothers who have it all together. They have tidy houses, all the washing is washed AND put away (my spare room is basically one big clothes mountain right now), they cook, they socialise and they work or volunteer and have other commitments on their time.
Based on my 5 years experience of being a parent it is impossible to get anywhere close to these mythical mothers' level of perfection unless you have children who sleep a lot. I'm talking early bedtimes, no wake ups and regular naps. It helps if you only need a few hours sleep too.
The rest of us normal mums of young children have this huge sleep deficit and have to compromise on what we are going to achieve.
Children clean, dressed, fed and at school on time means I've either got up super early (and I'm doing a rather good zombie impression) or I've had to skip breakfast, having a shower and putting on make up.
If my house is tidy it probably means that I'm expecting visitors, but it also means I will have a big backlog of emails, blog posts and general admin. I love having a tidy house, but between the 5 year old, the baby and the kitten it doesn't happen. Even if I spent nap time cleaning the kitchen, vacuuming and mopping the floor it would look like I hadn't bothered when G got home from work as dinner time would undo all the effort.
Today is one of those parenting days where I'm really struggling. There have been quite a few of those recently. Little hasn't slept well for months. At the moment she is in a seemingly endless cold cycle and I haven't even been able to take her to baby group this morning as she looks too infectious.
The house work has built up to the level that it's going to take some serious effort to get it sorted and if I have some child free time sleep is far higher a priority.
On top of all that it's been one of those crappy parenting evenings. The baby has been crying because she didn't nap this afternoon, she was so exhausted I pretty much had to hold her from 4pm until bedtime. The big sister came back from after school club full of attitude that suggested she had been taking behavioural lessons from a teenager. She had a small accident in her room which led to their being poo on Elsa (just Let it Go). The kitten timed her bowel emptying perfectly so we got to eat dinner with the odour of poop (yes my evening has largely been poo). M had a few bites of her dinner and bit her tongue so she decided she was no longer hungry and she was going to play with the lego mini figures at the table. Alice's head fell off so I had to crawl under the table looking for it. The alternative would mean forgetting about it until I find it tomorrow in the baby's mouth. Yay for the pincer grip development. M knocked over her drink soaking the table which is obviously piled high with stuff because every available surface in my house is. I finish cleaning it up just in time to see Little feeding the kitten some chicken which was meant to be her dinner.
There was less than 15 minutes from Elsa’s mishap to the baby led kitten feeding.
I have a sore throat and feel like rubbish because my body is too run down right now to constantly fight off the cold germs from the snot I'm being covered in daily. I think I'll thank school for the endless gift of illness.
I was hiding away writing this post after getting Little temporarily to sleep, but I heard a large crashing noise. I couldn't avoid investigating in case it was in my house and someone or some thing was in trouble. The source of crash is still unknown, but the house looks intact.
It's all ok. Tomorrow will be different. The house will still be a mess, I'll still have 1001 things to do, but Little will smile at me, M will give me a hug and I'll be buying some air freshener.
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