They went to bed a little later than usual tonight because we just celebrated Madison's 10th birthday by inviting 5 pre-teen girls over. After friends left for the night I rushed my own children through the nightly list...teeth brushed, family prayer, jammies. You know the routine. Sounds simple, right? As I reflected over my almost 12 years of parenting (33.3 years if you add all the kids ages together), I couldn't help but notice how my parenting has changed.
11 years ago routine: child takes bath, parent reads child book, sing a song together, brush teeth, cuddle, family prayer, check on kids before I go to sleep, comment about how cute and precious they are.
These days routine: yell at kids to get their pajamas on, ignore the fact that they are still wearing the same clothes they wore all day (did they wear it yesterday, too?), fast prayer (Ammon!), give them a hug and tell them to go to bed, warn them about crazy-mom if they come downstairs again.
Sometimes people ask me what the difference is between 4 and 5 kids. There's not a huge difference, besides the fact that babies are a lot of work balanced by the fact that the big kids are great helpers. I'm just worn out. I don't want to walk up the stairs at 9:30 at night to sweetly tuck everyone into bed. I don't have the energy to keep telling kids to put on pajamas.
It's enough to just pretend they are in bed, asleep. Fake ignorance is bliss. And if you think I'm a horrible mom--keep it to yourself, thanks.
Only one more week until school starts!
1 comment:
Oh Jenni you are a wonderful mother!! Being a mother of 5 is hard work! Just so you feel a little better, I do the exact same, except maybe 2 out of the five kids brush their teeth!! LOL! BJ
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