Monday, July 29, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Oh. My. Goodness. (the Micawber Principle)
When we decided to go for that one-more fourth kid, I kind of figured, hey, we've got this parenting thing down. We're already outnumbered. We haven't slept in years. We're pretty well used to legos all over the floor and peanut butter all over the furniture. How much worse could it be with just one more?
The answer is: A LOT. or rather, maybe not so terribly much worse, but enough to tip us from just south to just north of Insanity, Population 6.
A la Dickens: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery." Substitute parental time/energy/sleep for the pounds, kids demands on the same for expenditure, and you get the general idea. It's getting a lot better- Peter's sleep is improving, Thomas is potty training- but for a while there, yikes.
Illustration:
I was getting Peter down for his nap the other week. Thomas got the bright idea to sneak into the pantry, scale the shelves, and get out a bottle of sprinkles. He dropped it on his way down again and it fell into a 25 lb bag of flour, which struck him as an interesting playtime option. He scooped and sifted and dumped for a while (THIS INCLUDES PUTTING A USED FLY SWATTER DIRECTLY IN THE BAG), until George and Helen found him and were horrified at the mess he made. The two of them, with such sweetness and caring, decided to clean it right up and I found the situation looking something like this.
Mothering moment of the year: I bit my tongue and said, "wow, thanks guys, for helping to clean it up!"with NO sarcasm in my tone. Yes, my eyes may have been tearing up a little, my face going a bit purple, but I think I get some credit there.
The answer is: A LOT. or rather, maybe not so terribly much worse, but enough to tip us from just south to just north of Insanity, Population 6.
A la Dickens: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery." Substitute parental time/energy/sleep for the pounds, kids demands on the same for expenditure, and you get the general idea. It's getting a lot better- Peter's sleep is improving, Thomas is potty training- but for a while there, yikes.
Illustration:
I was getting Peter down for his nap the other week. Thomas got the bright idea to sneak into the pantry, scale the shelves, and get out a bottle of sprinkles. He dropped it on his way down again and it fell into a 25 lb bag of flour, which struck him as an interesting playtime option. He scooped and sifted and dumped for a while (THIS INCLUDES PUTTING A USED FLY SWATTER DIRECTLY IN THE BAG), until George and Helen found him and were horrified at the mess he made. The two of them, with such sweetness and caring, decided to clean it right up and I found the situation looking something like this.
Mothering moment of the year: I bit my tongue and said, "wow, thanks guys, for helping to clean it up!"with NO sarcasm in my tone. Yes, my eyes may have been tearing up a little, my face going a bit purple, but I think I get some credit there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)