That is what goes through my head on a somewhat regular basis. I seriously question my patience levels these days. I am apparently the kind of mother who has to remind herself subconsciously to be nice to her children. I lash out quicker than most mamas I know and it needs to be tamed.
I have read more than twenty blog posts just in the past couple of days that all revolve around the common topic of frustrated mothers. It HAS to be because school has just let out for summer, right? We can't all be this crabby and moody all of the time, can we?
I had good intentions to make this summer be the one of together-ness. To encourage creativity, explore our city of Delhi and remind ourselves why we like each other. You know :: shiny happy people, holding hands?
Instead, we've done an awful lot of sighing, fighting, whining and crying. All of us.
Caveat -- we did take a family vacation that was needed, appreciated and very much enjoyed -- some of the photos will be shared next week sometime.
I then read all of these blogs about how the mommas are so very intentional about their summers. They plan, they organize and they stick to it.
I get all gung ho, bookmark their lists of activities and write down the crafts that they are working on. I pull out yet another notebook and find different colored markers to encourage the process of scheduling some serious great fun
Then there's reality in my house.
The kids wake up -- at varied times of course -- putting a wrinkle in my plan to have breakfast at the table together.
I ask them to get dressed, for we are about to start .... drumroll please ... CRAFT TIME. To which everyone rolls their eyes, slumps their bodies and slink off to different parts of the house.
Before I know it, it's lunchtime, and I am hearing the refrain of "I'm bored" and "He's LOOKING at meeeeeeeeeee."
I try to plan, organize and stick to it, but instead shrug my shoulders, scrunch up my nose and sink into the couch with a huff and a sigh and reach for the remote control.
Some of the things I will resolve to work on this summer ::
- I am trying, trying, trying my hardest to take a mandatory 5 second pause before responding to my childrens' requests. If I take 5 seconds before answering, I find that I'm less likely to snap back with a "NO" or a "BECAUSE I SAID SO" or an "I DON'T KNOW!!"
- Bedtime is sooo important for our kids. Yours might be different, but it is so obvious the next day, when they didn't get the night off to a good start. Dinner before 7pm and daily bathtime (works great as a wind-down!).
- Teeth brushing. Seriously, we are BAD at this. I must make dental appointments for the whole family in the next week, and i fear that the dentist will SHUDDER when we walk in! Just being honest here, but I bet our kids brush an average of four times per week. Yes. Pathetic.
- Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere. Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share. We have (kids especially) gotten spoiled with having Sushila at the ready to clean up after our messes. I resolve this summer to make my CHILDREN responsible for their messes again.
- Anticipating their needs before they realize it. I think that if I could do a little damage control, I could possibly eliminate alot of the meltdowns. If I ask the kids to move on to a new activity BEFORE they tire of the current fun at hand, they are less likely to get frustrated and melt into a puddle of mush.
Maybe ... just maybe ... I can do my part to make this a summer to remember? Maybe I can change my inner dialogue (wasn't it Dr. Phil who talked about that?) to one that says "keep calm and carry on"
By the way ... if you haven't gotten your SHIRT yet, you MUST ... it's a great way to get involved with girls who have been rescued from the streets of Delhi ... AND remind yourself to keep calm! I won't bug you about it again ... I promise ... it's just such a great shirt and since we ship to the US or wherever you happen to hang your hat, you have no excuse!
