Why is being with kids always so chaotic? Chaos and my kids just seem to go together! (maybe it’s just me) Tonight I was trying to cook tea, when Abbie decided she needed to paint her nails (to make herself “beautiful”!!) so she appeared in the kitchen armed with two pots of nail varnish (that she’d been into my drawer to get). So I think, this won’t be too bad (she is six now) and I sit her down on the step into the kitchen and put some newspaper on the floor and let her get on with it (the other three are playing upstairs, so I’m hoping she’ll get it done before they notice!!) It’s all going okay, she’s made a bit of a hap-hazard job, but at least any mess is on the newspaper. Then the others arrive (don’t you just know this is going to be trouble?!) It starts okay, Millie paints her own (I have never seen so much nail varnish up anyone’s fingers and toes, but at least any drips are on the newspaper. Hannah and Georgia have theirs done by Abbie, who speaks to them as though she is a beautician in a salon!! Then the doorbell goes, as I head to the door I hear a shout from the kitchen. Georgia has taken the nail varnish back down off the side and dropped it, of course the lid hasn’t been put back on properly, so it has splashed over the floor and over her clothes. I rush back (shouting “I’ll be right with you!” to my friend behind the door) and frantically run back to the kitchen and wipe up the varnish, strip Georgia off and throw her clothes in the washing machine. I make it back to the door and open it to my patiently waiting friend.
A little later (with the smell of freshly applied nail varnish still lingering in the air) I put tea down in front of the girls and start clearing up the kitchen. Then Millie gives a shout, she has spilt her milk all over the table. Fine, deep breath, I get a cloth and wipe it off the table, her chair and the floor. I head back to the kitchen for all of two minutes before the shout comes that now Georgia has accidently knocked her milk over too (do they have some sort of agreement for a milk spillage night?) Hers has gone all over the table, the floor, her chair and her clean clothes (her last lot have nail varnish on!) and she is crying because she is wet. I get everything cleaned up – again, when Hannah drops her spoon on the floor for about the fourth time, spreading even more rice all over the floor. Then I look round and Georgia is smearing yoghurt up her legs (honestly, why can’t they just eat tea??) Luckily I have given up on clean clothes for her for tonight and she is just in her nappy.
I send them all upstairs after tea, to watch a bit of the bedtime hour in the spare room while I try to clear up the devastation from tea! When I get upstairs I find that they have decided against the option of watching TV, and gone for the getting every card game they can find in the cupboard and spreading them all out on the floor option. They have also all changed their clothes, leaving the ones they took off on the floor exactly where they dropped, and been in Rob’s wardrobe to help themselves to a tie (Millie is being a ‘Daddy’ in the game!!) Then I feel bad about feeling cross about all the things they’ve got out when they are actually playing nicely! (Millie makes a really cute ‘Daddy’ in her tie too!) I just wish they wouldn’t choose to do all this five minutes before bedtime! So with a bit of nagging from me, they help (a bit) with the tidying up and all get their pyjamas on and clean their teeth relatively nicely! Phew!
A little later (with the smell of freshly applied nail varnish still lingering in the air) I put tea down in front of the girls and start clearing up the kitchen. Then Millie gives a shout, she has spilt her milk all over the table. Fine, deep breath, I get a cloth and wipe it off the table, her chair and the floor. I head back to the kitchen for all of two minutes before the shout comes that now Georgia has accidently knocked her milk over too (do they have some sort of agreement for a milk spillage night?) Hers has gone all over the table, the floor, her chair and her clean clothes (her last lot have nail varnish on!) and she is crying because she is wet. I get everything cleaned up – again, when Hannah drops her spoon on the floor for about the fourth time, spreading even more rice all over the floor. Then I look round and Georgia is smearing yoghurt up her legs (honestly, why can’t they just eat tea??) Luckily I have given up on clean clothes for her for tonight and she is just in her nappy.
I send them all upstairs after tea, to watch a bit of the bedtime hour in the spare room while I try to clear up the devastation from tea! When I get upstairs I find that they have decided against the option of watching TV, and gone for the getting every card game they can find in the cupboard and spreading them all out on the floor option. They have also all changed their clothes, leaving the ones they took off on the floor exactly where they dropped, and been in Rob’s wardrobe to help themselves to a tie (Millie is being a ‘Daddy’ in the game!!) Then I feel bad about feeling cross about all the things they’ve got out when they are actually playing nicely! (Millie makes a really cute ‘Daddy’ in her tie too!) I just wish they wouldn’t choose to do all this five minutes before bedtime! So with a bit of nagging from me, they help (a bit) with the tidying up and all get their pyjamas on and clean their teeth relatively nicely! Phew!
You are an absolute saint!! Did you really do all this without getting the teeniest bit cross?! I'm ashamed to say that I would gradually have been getting more and more agitated and my voice would have been getting sterner and sterner until finally, as all the card games are on the floor and all the clean clothes are on together with Daddy's tie...I would have "overflowed" (that's Joe's term for when I lose the plot). You really are the sort of Mummy my children want. Joe has been sent to bed with a flea in his ear for the past 2 nights. It would seem that 6 appears to be the new 16!! xx
ReplyDeleteOhhh no, I was definitely cross! (I regularly get cross and do too much shouting!! - sometimes when I hear Abbie shouting at one of the others, I can actually hear myself!!)....but last night I was just too exhausted to get shouty cross, I couldn’t manage the extra energy required....so I ended up just going for the quietly cross....... and clearing up whilst quietly chuntering to myself about why kids are so full-on ALL of the time!
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