Parenting is Rough

 It's been a day. The fact that it's only Tuesday doesn't help. I'm trying to refocus, but man, kids are exhausting.

Last night I thought James was getting sick. He started crying at 5:30 and kept telling me that his head hurt. I knew it must really have been hurting because he accepted medicine without a fit. My biggest fear was that he was going to start throwing up. He didn't have a fever, but he said he might throw up. I made sure he had a bucket, and within 15 minutes he was fast asleep on the couch. I woke him just enough for him to walk up the stairs and get into his bed. He slept for almost 14 hours and by this morning you'd have never known he didn't feel good last night.

That didn't work to my advantage in the school department. I have no idea why everything is such a battle with that boy. He's smart, but I swear he turns into a psycho the minute he has to do work. "It's SO hard!" "I can't dooooo this!" He could be done so much faster and with so much less frustration if he would just focus.

Then Daniel decided to have the attitude of the century today. This resulted in me sounding like a true parent. I used the whole, "When you live in my house, where I pay the rent and the bills, you follow my rules. You respect our things or you lose them." Whew. Then sass came on strong after that. So, today I was the mean mom, who makes life unfair. He kept saying things under his breath (flashbacks to when I did that to my mom...Mom, I'm so sorry!) I told him he needed to lose the attitude, and he told me to lose mine...so THAT was fun. Then he copped an attitude when I asked him what he wanted for a snack? I gave him options and he goes, "Whatever. They're probably stale." Needless to say, he did not have a snack today either. I think he's finally rebounded, and we're having a much better evening. It's really hard being a parent. I would like to go back and laugh at pre-mom Rachel, because that Rachel thought parenting seemed like a breeze.

We haven't left the house since Sunday. Tomorrow I have to go to work, so I'll at least have motivation to get up and moving. We might have to go for a ride just to not be at home for a bit.

I'm back to falling asleep in the afternoon lately. Not good when you want to sleep at night. I just nod right off. It doesn't help that it's getting dark so early now either. I love the cold. I love winter. I don't much care for darkness at 5. It's like any motivation to do anything is sucked out of me. The nights are long. We can't go outside and play. We'll survive though.

Right now, I'll enjoy my Christmas tree and pray for better days ahead!