Tag Lines

In our house, we have a few tag lines. They seem to relieve stress (a little) when things are getting out of hand. This has been a weekend full of tag lines.

It hasn't been the worst weekend ever. Nothing in particular is wrong. There has just been no flow, no peace, no harmony...

Instead there has been crying (lots and lots of crying), the only people who haven't been crying are the parents and at least one of us is on the brink. There have been bed wetting accidents. There has been a lot of attitude. There has been whining and fighting. There has been entirely too much yelling. There has been begging. There has not been much listening or respect--regarding respect, I find it is such a vicious cycle for me. Once I feel that the children are being disrespectful, I find it very difficult to give them the respect they deserve and the cycle continues. It is such a fine line we walk as parents, ensuring children respect us and all adults, but also remembering that they are people who deserve respect. We definitely do not follow the style of parenting where children have equal say or rights in our home in most situations. We do feel they need our guidance and we are here to lead them down the right path, but we do not want to squash their little spirits and we do want them to learn the ability to make the correct choices on their own. Again, I am reminded how much more I "knew" about parenting before I had kids. My kids were "never going to act like______"...

Normally after a weekend, I am feeling at least a little bit revived and ready to take on another week. Tonight I am feeling completely spent and tense and frustrated. I have just listened to our youngest cry herself to sleep which is something I have not had to do before with her and chose not to do with the first two. Daddy has left for most of the week. He will actually sleep here two nights this week, but the kids won't see him. His schedule is so hectic these next few weeks. I know part of my tension is anticipating more of the same due to the fact I'll be on my own most of the rest of the month. When he is here, he is over scheduling himself to spend some special time with the kids. He has changed a flight this week from a decent hour evening flight to a super early not so decent hour morning flight, so that he can make a soccer coaches meeting and help out with both his son and his daughter's leagues. He spent 3 hours out in the rain helping kids practice soccer skills this afternoon. Do they know now how much he wants to do all of this and more for them, but that it still doesn't make it any easier on him?

No one ever said life was easy. Moments like these I look at our family and those sweet (often) smiling and laughing children and think, how can I feel so agitated and frustrated when I am so blessed? But sometimes I do. Sometimes it is harder than others.

I am committed to getting rest this week. I intentionally put them to bed earlier tonight than we have been so that I could have some time alone without staying up until midnight. I'm a little anxious about putting Sarah into her new "school" on Tuesday morning and about getting the kids to bed early enough when our Bible study is meeting here this week. I'm anxious about all of the back to school nights/events I'll be attending in the next 3 weeks by myself because Daddy is traveling.

We parents are both beaten down and exhausted and it is impossible to do a good job as parents when beaten down and exhausted. So we'll chalk it up to a rough weekend and start fresh tomorrow.

In case anyone is wondering, here are some of our tag lines...

"It's a heckuva day at sea, Sir!" (Overboard) This one is mostly one of mine when Daddy calls to see how our day has been...

"Why did we have to have all these kids?" (It's A Wonderful Life) This one comes from both of us in those moments when we want to cling to each other or hide, but can't...

"The Angry Family" (Everybody Loves Raymond) This one comes after too much shouting from one, both or all of us...

"SERENITY NOW!" (Seinfeld) This one is a lot less popular lately, but was one of those that could be heard over very loud crying that wouldn't stop...

Yes, we know they are pretty random and most people probably don't find them the least bit amusing, but hey, it works for us. Sometimes we would like to just sit and cling to each other in the chaos, but if we did that, they might realize not only do they outnumber us, but sometimes it scares us that they do! We've got to stay strong.

Now I'm off to do some reading and unwinding so that I can get to bed at a decent hour. Our Bible study is on Revelations...perhaps I will have a "revelation" after tonight's reading. God knows I need at least one. Good night.

(I chose these pictures because they aren't the typical clean faced, smiling, happy-go-lucky-everything-is-wonderful pictures. There's more to these little people than meets the camera's eye...or maybe they just eat too much sugar.)