Much Mads, Very Frustrate

Did I do the Doge thing right? Probably not. I had a hard time with MSN speak and text shortcuts too. But I tried, that’s all that counts, right?

Doge Meme - for those who are confused by that reference.

[via]

Anyway, like the title of this post suggests…I am going through an [at home] stage of being very mad and frustrated. Why? Because my children, who have always been difficult and frustrating, are even more difficult and frustrating. Food battles and pick up your toy battles are daily occurances for us and have been forever, but I used to tell myself at least they go to bed easy. I knew that 7pm would come. I knew that after stories, teeth brushing and cuddles they would go to bed relatively easy. A “bad” night consisted of Archer coming to the door to whine a few times before giving in to sleep.

I could deal with that. That was easy. Now? It’s much worse. The past several nights this week, I’ve put them to bed only to have them spend the next two hours tearing all the clothes out of their dresser, pulling all the blankets off their beds and terrorizing each other until my hair turns grey and I turn into Banshee Mom. It’s not pretty. I have tried everything. I removed the bookshelf from their room. I put them to bed an hour later than usual,  thinking they just weren’t tired. I laid with Archer and rubbed his head until he was nearly asleep. The moment I came downstairs, he was out of his bed pulling the blankets off of the beds while Nolan got up and tore the clothes out of the dresser. Both were almost asleep when I left. If I leave the piles of clothes on the floor until morning, they stay up even later piling it onto their beds and hiding in clothes forts. I don’t get it.

My hair is literally turning grey. I pulled out 7 strands yesterday.

My patience is so thin. And it’s not like they give me a break during the day by listening and behaving, no…anything they can do to be bad, they’ll do. They fight over toys and refuse to pick them up. They drop their food on the ground and won’t clean it willingly. They used to listen better, they used to put their garbage in the garbage, clear their plates after meals and they used to help with chores and go to bed easy.

I blame winter. My kids never want to play outside (unless I force them and believe me I have). In the warmer months, we go to parks and for walks all the time. It’s harder in the winter. It’s cold, the cold affects my bones and their bones. Frequent trips outside just don’t happen like they do during the warmer months.

So why am I blogging about this, anyway? I have no solution, no “how to deal”. I have no “zen like mom” stories to share…just my Banshee Mom confession. Usually, people don’t blog about the difficult parts of their life, at least not without a “how to fix it all” mindset. I’m mostly just blogging about it, letting it explode out of my head in the hopes that someone will have a solution or some insight for the night time nightmare.

Today, even though my kids have been nonstop arguing and doing bad stuff, I plan on taking them to an indoor playground. They need to burn off energy and I need to give them that outing to remind them that there is still fun things we can do in the winter months to get out of the house. I also need leverage. You know, “if you do your chores and get along we can go to the indoor playground again!”

On a related note…is there a wine club I could join?