You Do What You Gotta Do
‘You’re a booonk head iPad! You’re not my best friend ANY more’.
Possible response: ‘That’s not very nice calling me that, and I like being your friend’.
Actual response: ‘Good’.
The response generally depends on the time of day, day of the week time of the month, number of coffees consumed, the weather, time of wake up that morning and especially what it is in reference to. Example: I’m a ‘booonk head iPad’ because I have carelessly put the grapes into a blue bowl instead of a green one, and they are purple grapes not green ones. You can hazard a guess at the response (with a possible expletive muttered under the breath).
A friend of mine used to have a saying on a poster on their wall, ‘You choose your own mood’. Well my friend, if that is the case, I choose to be in a mother fudging bad one, because all I’ve copped all day is ‘The Whinge’ and attitude. It is hard to stay in that mood though, when the two offending children come up to bear hug you and whisper, ‘I like you too Mum’ or ‘I love you sooo much forever’.
Having two young boys, I find some of the hardest things to deal with are the whinging and aggression. I know whinging is universal for children, actually people, but it seriously is a form of torture.
I generally say ‘I don’t understand whinge, speak properly’. So the Two year old started to say ‘Speak properly’…. in a whingey tone. Touché.
Of course, it is also a well-known fact that children tend to start whining and whinging when they are either: a) tired b) bored c) hungry. Combine all three, and call in for back up pronto. This time is usually between 5pm-6pm for us, and it is magnified after a day at preschool, which we have christened ‘The Preschool Blues’ in our house.
I feel guilty admitting it, but this is more often than not when Netflix (back up) comes into the picture, as it defuses the situation and everyone gets what he or she wants. I’m exhausted after entertaining/parenting all day, hubby working, so we get peace and quite and a chance to organise dinner, and the boys some much desired Transformer time.
These days it is hard not to feel guilty when you put the television on, or get the iPad out. Some days however, these two wondrous technological devices have saved my sanity, reduced the amount of jaw clenching, and bad word muttering. We usually put a timer on the iPad, and when that goes off, well, so does the Four year old! Worth. It.
Imagine two puppies, and how they are continuously wrestling, biting each other and chasing each other around. That is a day spent with two young boys, and yes it is continuous AND exhausting. If they don’t get some sort of physical exertion out during the day, then it’s like an episode of the Hunger Games in the afternoon, and no one is safe. So we TRY to go for a bike ride, walk or just spend the majority of the day outside. We are fortunate to have a spacious kid friendly backyard, and by fortunate, I mean we 90% bought the place for this very reason.
After all of the illogical arguments, tantrums by all of us, whinging and brink of insanity moments, I always find that at the end of the day when the boys are in bed, without a doubt the hubby and I will look back and laugh at everything that occurred during the day. Nothing is as bad as it seemed at the time, even the argument about the offending blue coloured bowl and wrong grapes.
In the end, I always tell myself that you’ve got to do, what you’ve got to do, and if that’s an hour of TV, then so be it! It’s essentially a time out and reset for all. If 50% of the family is happy at the end of the day, that’s a win! (And we all know which 50% is happy at 7pm).
This weeks article was contributed by Nerida, a parent of two happy and energetic boys ages 2 and 4. She has a delightful sense of humour which helps get through those ‘challenging’ days.
Happy ‘booonk head’ week!
