Crawling Across the Summer Finish Line
It’s the beginning of August, and I’m beginning to witness the decline of my children’s attitudes and my own patience. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of routine, or the lack of rest, or the heat which makes Satan cry out for an air conditioner, but my children began morphing into little villains a few days ago. Has anyone else encountered this phenomenon, or is it just me?
A great example of this is my sweet oldest child, the Zoologist. He is by no means perfect, but he’s usually the most even-keeled of our four blessings. But not this week. This week he has dissolved into tears over stuffed animals, and skittles, and leaving a wedding early. Today, HE FELL ASLEEP AT NAPTIME. This really is a glaring symptom of his little world being out of whack. Nap time for him normally just means a bit of quiet time reading or playing with toys, mainly so I can get a break and reset my own sanity. But today he slept for three hours and we finally had to go and wake him up.
The classic middle child of my brood, the six-year-old Ballerina (we actually need to come up with a different nickname because she has retired her ballet shoes for now, but that is a different blog post) has been throwing around uncharacteristic glares, scowls, and eye rolls like it’s her job. I can usually count on her to bring the sweetness to any situation, but here lately it’s been sour grapes.
Would you like some chocolate? *insert eye roll*
Please put your shoes away. *dirty look*
Please pick your toys up or I will throw them away. *shooting laser beams out of her eyes*
Another example: the soon-to-be-four-year-old is starting to have mood swings that put any hormonal mom-to-be to shame. Case in point, in the car on the way home from church today. She had gotten her panties in a wad (figuratively, not literally) about something, and was screaming like a banshee (literally, not figuratively). I don’t even remember what the problem was. One second she was fine, and the next she was screaming. And then all of a sudden the assault on our ears stopped and she said (in a perfectly normal voice), “Why is everything green in here?” What the what?! We went from one extreme to the other so fast that it made Usain Bolt look like the tortoise in the age-old fable.
Lastly, my little two-year-old Jedi has been all sorts of discombobulated. He’s not sure himself if he’s tired or not feeling well or just wanting to work out some aggression. One minute he’s lying on the couch all sweet and snuggly watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and the next he’s chasing us around the house with a foam bat. And I’ll tell you what, man, that kid has some power behind his swings. You would run too. Don’t judge me until you’ve run away from my 2yo in my shoes, mkay?
So, to all you parents just trying to crawl across the “summer’s just so fun I can’t stand it anymore” finish line, you’re not alone. There may be some out there still living the dream on a cruise ship to the Bahamas (you know who you are), but the rest of us just want school to start again. Oh wait, this year I go to school WITH my kids…