Before I had children I had a perfect image in my head of how things would be….
My children would always be clean and smart, they’d never answer back or behave in a less than impeccable manner and I would have a tidy house and manage to put a delicious looking tea on the table every night at 5pm. I would never raise my voice and I’d always find time to put make up on before I left the house.
The reality is very different….
Although they do start the day clean and smart, they rarely make it past half past nine before they look like they’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards. They’re not badly behaved children in any way but they’re certainly not the quiet, polite children that I pictured and a tidy house is about as rare as me sending them off to school in matching socks!
I find myself shouting on a regular basis – not so much to tell them off but to make myself heard. In fact, it makes me smile that the thing I shout about most is to tell them to keep quiet. It’s a good job they don’t get irony yet isn’t it?
Meal times are far from organised, even with a meal plan we still have to frequently switch things about to allow for extra children who regularly join us unexpectedly. Miss Frugal is the worst for this – she’ll regularly comes in from playing out with friends to ask if she can have friends for tea. With Mr Frugal working shifts and the kids busy social lives (nothing exciting for me though – I don’t have time), it can be a nightmare to get everyone sat down at once and there are some nights when I have to cook three separate evening meals. Wherever possible, we do eat together and we always start the meal by going round the table with everyone saying the best thing about their day – this means that I find out at least one thing about what they’ve done as they used to just say ‘I forgot’ or ‘not much’ when I asked them what they’d been up to.
And as organised as I like to think I am on a morning getting us all ready to go to work and school, I still don’t have enough time to get us all ready to leave the house at 7.30am and still manage to get make up on. I have no idea how people managed to do this!
So, when you read this blog and you think I’m an organised perfect mum – think again 😉
