I really couldn’t believe my kids today: they played together for over an hour, playing house. Too cute! I did my best to be invisible, not to disturb or distract, not to interfere, just observe. They were calling each other mom and dad which was kind of confusing since I also listen to ‘mom’. I heard my daughter telling my son: “let’s ask the other mom” meaning me. They crack me up sometimes 🙂 I want to believe that this is the turning point where my kids start entertaining themselves and each other, giving us some breathing space, but I’m afraid I’ll jinx it… I do feel like some time in the near future I will be able to take my 3 kids out in public by myself, and for more than the usual ridiculously short bike ride.

I wonder if I should just take them out and not be bothered if my son stubbornly decides he doesn’t feel like walking anymore (but I can’t just leave him behind, right?), ánd my daughter forgets to tell me she actually had to pee (oops, and then you’re supposed to be understanding and not get mad…1, 2, 3, 4, …), ánd my baby girl is crying for whatever reason. I usually try to avoid being in such a situation while by myself in public because I find it too stressful. But I wonder how other people do it. Maybe if I took my kids grocery shopping every week they would get used to it and learn how to behave, and I would get used to it and learn how to respond. Going to the supermarket has never been my most favourite thing to do, especially with kids. So my two toddlers can only come if they promise to stay in the shopping cart (as if I’d let them run free!), if we don’t need much (two kids pretty much fill up the cart), and if we have time (the kids want to scan all the items themselves…).

I feel like I’m taking the easy way out though but I guess part of me is afraid I won’t be able to handle my own kids, and wouldn’t that be bad.

Obviously I prefer easy over hard though it’s not always better. Sometimes I feed my children while they’re fully capable of feeding themselves, and they could really use the practice but 1) I want them to eat everything and not pick and choose because that would mean only meat and no veggies, and 2) they can make such a mess of things which bothers me more than I like to admit. Another example is letting the kids sleep in our bed…it sure beats educating them in the middle of the night when all you want to do is sleep. I used to be a big sleeper. Now I’m happy if the kids sleep through the night, grateful if they sleep until 7 am, and extremely grateful (with a bit of disbelief: this can’t be right, where are my glasses?) if they sleep until 8 am. The more, the merrier, and the bigger the chance that at least one child will wake up in the middle of the night, end up in your bed kicking YOU while THEY sleep, or wake up before the crack of dawn… Time to call it a night because I’ve got the feeling we’ll have company tonight.  Don’t tell my kids but I actually enjoy their nightly visits as long as they let me sleep.