I’m cold. Can you help me put on my sweater? Can you help me zip up my sweater? – Well, depending on their mood I’m either asked for help or yelled at because I helped…

I’m sooooo hot!  Can I take off my clothes? I wanna take off my clothes! – Aren’t we fickle!

Mommy, where’s my __ (fill in the blank) – Apparently, as a mom, I’m supposed to be psychic and know exactly where all of their stuff are…

I wanna watch tv. Can I watch tv? – Yes, please! #badparenting

Will you play with me? – Sure, why don’t we play the same game we’ve played a zillion times already…

I’m hungry / thirsty / need to pee / all of the above and at the same time.

The incessant flow of information, sometimes (read: at extremely rare occasions) they ask nicely, other times they bark some less polite orders or simply shout demands in my ear. At times, I can’t hear myself think, let alone have a conversation with another grown up (or small person for that matter). How I crave just five minutes of rest to do my own thing like say, writing a blog post or even thinking about writing a blog post. ‘Alright, I’ll just sit next to you then, mommy’ and he starts fumbling with my arm. I can’t help but smile…obviously I don’t get my five minutes…

The other day I suddenly realized how I jump each time my kids (and not only my kids) need something. The minute I sit down, I’m up again, getting something from the fridge, looking for a very specific pink phone (obviously not any phone will do), kissing away some imaginary booboo. I should try slowing down, letting them wait for whatever they so desperately need and absolutely cannot live without for another second. You know what the problem is? Kids don’t ask for things once, they ask the same question at least ten times like a broken record, or until you’ve acknowledged their needs, whichever comes first. Ignoring usually doesn’t help, kids can be very persistant.

Conversationwise, I tried something I picked up on the net a while ago (forgot the source though, #badblogger): I explained to my son that when he wants to tell me something while I’m in the middle of a conversation, he should grab my wrist and wait his turn. We tried it a few times but I never expected it to work in real life, though it sounded heavenly to me to be able to talk to people without constant interruption making me lose my train of thoughts. Some time later I’m in a conversation and my son is yelling things at me which I’m trying to ignore, since well, I was in a conversation. Suddenly he grabs my wrist and tries to make eye contact. I was baffled. He remembered! How my kids keep surprising me or how I underestimate them sometimes…

We all know they mirror our behaviour, they want to do what we do (like cleaning and grocery shopping, go figure) and have what we have (preferably something expensive like a smartphone or tablet) and say what we say, which can lead to some interesting situations. When trying to educate my toddlers, they both started talking back at me, especially my daughter. ‘No, mommy, YOU go and chill out in the hall way! I’m gonna count to three!’ All with a very serious expression on her face and index finger pointing up pretending to be me. It’s hard to keep a straight face but it’s also very confronting. Good thing they also mirror good behaviour. When I compliment them, they compliment me back. And they shower me with hugs and kisses just like I do with them. 💙