Just as my eldest child (C, now 5 years old) turned one, I began to get broody again. There is a ten year age gap between myself and my sister and I knew that I wanted my own children to be close in age. I had imagined them playing together, forming a wonderful bond and eventually having each other's backs as they moved into their teenage years.
We have great times, there's no doubt about that. It is so clear that they love each other to bits and I know they will defend each other to the death when they are teens. They love to play nicely together on occasion, especially when it comes to their mutual love of superheroes. But now? It can be hard. One thing I didn't know much about as I was effectively an only child until the age of 10, were the sibling fights. Oh, the sibling fights! If they can find something to argue over, no matter how silly or trivial, they will argue over it. Arguing sometimes isn't enough.We will even have hitting and hair pulling and at these moments, I do become a bit of a shouty mum because I am not going to allow them to get away with that kind of behaviour. I have been known to leave a room and count to five before I explode.
They bounce off each other a lot too so if C is in his, what I like to call, "his funny half hour" where he just giggles and laughs about everything, taking nothing seriously, E will be right there adding fuel to the fire and thus igniting my inner rage. Usually I can let this go but if it happens over homework time, no way. At the ages of five and three, I am definitely well aware that they do push boundaries and see what they can get away with. It helps to have mum friends to message and have a little rant to (hi, Jenna!) because they get it and won't judge.
They both absolutely hate food shopping but guess what? That's life and we have to do it. They will mope and moan and groan the whole way around the shop, attempt to run off (more E than C) so Chris and I have actually resorted to pep talks before we even go into the shop which usually includes a bribe of a chocolate bar if they behave themselves. They love to talk about things like poop, farts, bogies and bums at the top of their voices in public and I swear it has to be just so they can embarrass us!
Getting two children dressed in the morning is a hard slog. E will put one sock on and decide it's funny to run away from me so I can't put the rest of her clothes on. C will then think what she's doing is hilarious and do exactly the same thing. And why does it always happen when we're in a hurry to be somewhere? Don't even get me started on the refusal to eat dinner that they specifically ask for. This is one thing that really irritates Chris. I often joke to him that turning 30 is just around the corner and FUE hair transplantation can be a option for the hair that he's losing due to the kids being stressful! Most days after we've put the kids to bed, we just need to relax on the sofa for half an hour before we even attempt to do anything else just so we can recharge a bit. I'm not making parenthood sound very good, am I? I don't think my temperament helps much as I can be a little uptight, find things harder and take things more seriously than they have to be. It's something that I have to work on.
It's not all tough though. There is nothing better than getting some family time like baking together, going to the cinema, being outdoors or having movie or game night. The children are so caring and loving and I couldn't even tell you the amount of hugs and kisses we get and we are constantly being told they love us. I do get a lot of "mum-guilt" over being a shouty mum at times but things like this make me feel a little better about it all. I wouldn't change it for the world.
We have great times, there's no doubt about that. It is so clear that they love each other to bits and I know they will defend each other to the death when they are teens. They love to play nicely together on occasion, especially when it comes to their mutual love of superheroes. But now? It can be hard. One thing I didn't know much about as I was effectively an only child until the age of 10, were the sibling fights. Oh, the sibling fights! If they can find something to argue over, no matter how silly or trivial, they will argue over it. Arguing sometimes isn't enough.We will even have hitting and hair pulling and at these moments, I do become a bit of a shouty mum because I am not going to allow them to get away with that kind of behaviour. I have been known to leave a room and count to five before I explode.
They bounce off each other a lot too so if C is in his, what I like to call, "his funny half hour" where he just giggles and laughs about everything, taking nothing seriously, E will be right there adding fuel to the fire and thus igniting my inner rage. Usually I can let this go but if it happens over homework time, no way. At the ages of five and three, I am definitely well aware that they do push boundaries and see what they can get away with. It helps to have mum friends to message and have a little rant to (hi, Jenna!) because they get it and won't judge.
They both absolutely hate food shopping but guess what? That's life and we have to do it. They will mope and moan and groan the whole way around the shop, attempt to run off (more E than C) so Chris and I have actually resorted to pep talks before we even go into the shop which usually includes a bribe of a chocolate bar if they behave themselves. They love to talk about things like poop, farts, bogies and bums at the top of their voices in public and I swear it has to be just so they can embarrass us!
Getting two children dressed in the morning is a hard slog. E will put one sock on and decide it's funny to run away from me so I can't put the rest of her clothes on. C will then think what she's doing is hilarious and do exactly the same thing. And why does it always happen when we're in a hurry to be somewhere? Don't even get me started on the refusal to eat dinner that they specifically ask for. This is one thing that really irritates Chris. I often joke to him that turning 30 is just around the corner and FUE hair transplantation can be a option for the hair that he's losing due to the kids being stressful! Most days after we've put the kids to bed, we just need to relax on the sofa for half an hour before we even attempt to do anything else just so we can recharge a bit. I'm not making parenthood sound very good, am I? I don't think my temperament helps much as I can be a little uptight, find things harder and take things more seriously than they have to be. It's something that I have to work on.
It's not all tough though. There is nothing better than getting some family time like baking together, going to the cinema, being outdoors or having movie or game night. The children are so caring and loving and I couldn't even tell you the amount of hugs and kisses we get and we are constantly being told they love us. I do get a lot of "mum-guilt" over being a shouty mum at times but things like this make me feel a little better about it all. I wouldn't change it for the world.
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