I’ve touched on this before in my “No Shower Required” post, but seriously you guys, I’ve gotten SUPER lazy as a parent. You want a sucker at 8:30 in the morning? Sure, why not. I have zero tolerance for screaming before I’ve even had my coffee. You want to eat a red popsicle in the living room on my ivory carpet? Go for it; I want new carpet anyway. You don’t like what I made for dinner? Fine. We are paying college tuition in daycare costs so you can learn a second language and eat organic food. Toast it is then. Sure, go ahead and bring your iPad to the dinner table with you. Dinner wouldn’t be the same without the Family Finger song playing in the background for the 100 millionth time. Might as well put Caillou on the TV while you’re at it so we can really drive mommy over the deep end. Yeah, totally, wiping after you poop is definitely optional. I’ve completely given up on scrubbing the skid marks out of your underwear anyway. I just chuck those those crusty bastards in the garbage and go on with my day.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when I turned the corner from being laid back to sheer lazy as I’ve always sort of towed the line, but I think it’s pretty evident what side of the road I’m standing on these days. And yet somehow I’m shocked and almost angry when Deklan tells me that all he wants to do when he gets home from school is watch TV because he “doesn’t like to move his body”.  I responded appropriately by telling him that was the laziest thing I’ve heard all day, so then of course he switched up his strategy and said the real reason he wants to watch TV instead of playing with us is because he’s more interested in what the people who live inside the TV are up to. I mean, I can’t really blame the guy because I can completely empathize with wanting to kick back after a long day and not be bothered either, but I only get 2-4 hours a day with my children as a working mom so it still burns to hear that he’d rather watch TV than spend time with me.

I’ve read all the articles that tell you to focus on the quality of your time together versus the quantity – and to some degree I buy into it – but between the hour of getting out the door in the morning, and the hour of cooking and cleaning in the evenings, plus baths and letting them pick a show or two to watch, it leaves little time for much else. Most days it feels like a win if we get 30-45 minutes of uninterrupted play in. It’s so unfair. I want to make more time for them because I know they’ll only be young once, but I also need to make more time for myself because I’m always one burnt dinner away from burning down the entire house; and more time for my husband because he’s too important to me to neglect; and more time for my family who has had one health issue after another and deserves so much more help than I feel I’m giving them right now; and more time to nurture my friendships because they make life more fun and also keep me sane; and more time for my career because I crave the challenge in taking on new roles; and more time to pursue this passion of mine that I’m hoping to someday turn into a legit career so I can make my own hours – which will give me more time for ALL of these things. OR WILL IT? I guess I don’t really know yet. I somehow need to carve out the time to figure it out though, because something HAS to give…

End rant.

Well this post certainly took an unintended turn off topic but I’m guessing I’m not alone in this random stream of consciousness, so I’m going to leave it here for us to noodle on. Maybe together we’ll come up with a way to get more time back in our day. In the meantime, let’s all raise a glass from afar and be thankful for any time we do have because life is too short to be scrubbing undies when they sell them in packs of 5!

#TribeLife