As we come to the end of the summer holidays it is often a time for reflection and excitement for what is to come. In our case it’s excitement that the boys are going to be back at school! Do I feel guilty for saying this? Yes I do, massively but as I look around my shit tip of a house I realise just how much changes over that six weeks each year that the boys are off.
We have got up to some amazing adventures over the last six weeks and although some times have been stressful as is often the case with two young boys we have had great fun.
We have also had limited time to ourselves and what with work, childcare and all the other normal jobs you need to do as a grown up it feels like we have become useless at it. I haven’t kept of top of tidying because the times I do get it done it then takes less than ten minutes for it to be in an even worse state than when I started. You almost get to that point where you think what is the point in trying.
Of course when no one can find clean pants or the washing up pile is taller than me I need to reconsider slightly. I would dearly love to know how other mums manage to keep a tidy and organised house with two monsters running around like loons. I can honestly say that I think Karl and I have both drunk more over the last six weeks than we have all year!
I know that we all know that what you see on social media isn’t real, people take pictures of the things that look good and the tidy corners of their home all the while there is a pile of clutter and toys all over the floor somewhere unseen. I do of course do this. There are only very limited points of my home I can ever take pictures of for this very reason but I honestly think that our home seems to be worse that most others.
I’m not sure how to drum in into the boys that cleaning doesn’t just do itself. I’ve been given hints and tips before about how if you don’t touch their mess they will eventually get so annoyed of it they will clear it up without you asking. This is not the case with Nate and Leo who I genuinely believe would prefer to live in a rubbish dump and be covered in mud all the livelong day.
They don’t want to get dressed, wash, brush their teeth or hair, they don’t care if their clothes match or have holes in and would rather walk around all day with jam or chocolate spread across their faces than god forbid wiping it. I get so tired of repeating the same requests over and over and trying to show them how much better it is to have lovely clean teeth only to find toothbrushes shoved down the back of the sofa.
I’m not asking for the answers, I get that as a mother and wife I need to be able to handle these things and to try all possible options to get the message into the boys. This is the problem, it’s absolutely exhausting and the rewards are few. I have two beautiful, bright and healthy children and I will be grateful and love them everyday forever more but I also have grey hair, lines around my eyes, a permanent pursed lips face and a headache from not only the noise of banging and arguing (them) but also my own voice from telling them off.
At some point in every parents life I’m sure that you think that your child is behaving worse than anyone else’s and how awful it feels and the majority of the time this won’t actually be the case at all and you or they are just having a bad day. Well I think this at some point everyday, when old women tut at me as the boys rush past them in the High Street, when they run around the supermarket like a pair of overexcited donkeys and when we are somewhere where you should be quiet and they are shouting about poo bums and stinky pants.
Still as of Tuesday I will be moaning about missing them and sitting in my superclean living room in the quiet missing their laughter and high jinxs. Right off for another glass of wine before I drive myself mad (well more than usual) with my misery and moaning!
tiredfromwhitstable 