Are Your Kids Hard Work?

Kids are hard work, and anybody who thinks other wise either doesn’t have kids or is riding a unicorn in the land of delusion.

I love my kids more than anything in this world, but jeez do I long for bedtime some nights, a lot of nights. And do I feel guilty saying that? Hell no! They drain me of every bit of sanity and strength I have. And I know I a not alone. But this doesn’t mean I dislike being a parent. I love it. My kids saved my life.

Bing a parent is the most amazing yet most draining job in the world. Even when your kids are being well behaved it’s one task after anther. It’s endless. It’s relentless. This doesn’t mean I don’t like being a parent, because I do, not all the time, but I do, sometimes. Ha. Jokingggggg.

I often think back to my pre-kid days and get annoyed that I didn’t sleep more! Or enjoy the quiet more! Or enjoy restaurants more! Or enjoy peeing alone – how did this become a luxury? The luxury of being alone to pee has long gone in this house, and I doubt it will return for at least another 10 years! When I pee it obviously sets off some sensor in my kids who need things immediately, things so important thy cannot wait for me to get out the bathroom i.e. a snack. And if I had a dollar for every time I was asked for the stapler to clip together the nine millionth 2-page comic that day I’d be hiring a fulltime nanny. Joke. A fulltime cleaner to be precise. No joke.

I hate meal planning too, with two kids with different tastes and a gluten-free husband it takes so long to meal plan. But, you cant please everyone, and at meal times you can’t please anyone! It’s better to just accept this and serve what you want anyway! Don’t get me wrong we have quite a few pleasant meal times, and by pleasant I mean burps are reduced to 3 or 4, nobody picks their nose and eats it, no drinks are spilt, and nobody kicks each other sneakily under the table. I don’t allow technology at the dinner table, but on the rare occasion when I legit need silence before my head literally combusts I tell the kids to get their tabs to watch a cartoon on Sky TV. You gotta do what you gotta do. And do I feel guilty? Nope. Why? Because it’s hard work being a parent and sometimes we just need 10 minutes of uninterrupted peace without people pinching each other or moaning their brother looked at them or showed the other one their chewed up gross food.

Kids take anything simple and make it a chore. Wow, I sound a bit harsh, but if you’re a parent you know the heart I mean it from. I hope.

I also have a love/hate relationship with things such as our trampoline. My boys love it. It’s the best purchase we made, but also the bane of my life. They enjoy going on there together – for 2 seconds, and then it turns into a death match with wailing, screaming, shouting, tears, and it drives me bloody insane! And no doubt our neighbours too. I am an only child so all this sibling arguing and fighting is alien to me. Anybody else have kids that argue on the trampoline or just mine?

We have sibling arguments over anything in this house. They would argue over a turd. I kid you not! We have the top bunk sleeper dribbling onto the bottom bunk sleeper, we have snot being wiped on each other, elbowing, kicking, punching, arguing over who left the Lego out, arguing over who used a flannel, fighting over the colour of a pen despite them both having black ink in, arguments over who is opening the front door, arguments over the seat they sit in at dinnertime, arguments over who has 1mm more apple juice in their cup etc, the list is endless. My kids would argue over arguing. It drives me crazy!

Parenting is not easy. Not at all. So on the hard days remember we are all in this together, and the people who look like they have it all figured out and the perfect little family are just better at covering up their shiz than other people.

It’s hard. And it’s ok to say it’s hard. It doesn’t make you a failure, it makes you real. And real is the very thing this world needs.