One calm and quiet morning, the birds were chirping, the sun was
shining and the children in the house were listening well and playing nicely together. So, I let my guard down. I stepped out of the room to put a few dishes away and then it got really quiet - too quiet. It was the calm before the storm. Within a matter of minutes, my son was running around with no pants, there was toilet paper (fortunately unused) all over the living room, the bathroom door was locked (although nobody was in it), my daughter was crying because it was naptime, and my mother-in-law would knock at the door at any moment.
Yikes! Parenting can certainly be a challenge, even for those trained to tackle these tough moments. I took lots of deep breaths and calmly addressed one issue at a time. I put my daughter down for a nap, convinced my son that he had to wear pants and clean up the toilet paper in order to go to the park with Grandma, and I got out the screwdriver and fixed the bathroom lock, all before my mother-in-law arrived.
In the moment I was ready to scream. This was not how I envisioned my life as a parent - talking to myself to calm down, fixing doorknobs while the kids jumped on couches and "toilet-papered" my living room. Looking back, it is a pretty funny image. And, it is all part of parenting. Living in the moment, taking lots of deep breaths and finding the humor in it all.
shining and the children in the house were listening well and playing nicely together. So, I let my guard down. I stepped out of the room to put a few dishes away and then it got really quiet - too quiet. It was the calm before the storm. Within a matter of minutes, my son was running around with no pants, there was toilet paper (fortunately unused) all over the living room, the bathroom door was locked (although nobody was in it), my daughter was crying because it was naptime, and my mother-in-law would knock at the door at any moment.
Yikes! Parenting can certainly be a challenge, even for those trained to tackle these tough moments. I took lots of deep breaths and calmly addressed one issue at a time. I put my daughter down for a nap, convinced my son that he had to wear pants and clean up the toilet paper in order to go to the park with Grandma, and I got out the screwdriver and fixed the bathroom lock, all before my mother-in-law arrived.
In the moment I was ready to scream. This was not how I envisioned my life as a parent - talking to myself to calm down, fixing doorknobs while the kids jumped on couches and "toilet-papered" my living room. Looking back, it is a pretty funny image. And, it is all part of parenting. Living in the moment, taking lots of deep breaths and finding the humor in it all.
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