Mommy Needs a Time Out

Yesteday I had to give myself a timeout.

I knew I needed it. I think the kids even knew I needed it. It was just one of those days....

I know I am not alone in saying that some days you just want to end so you can start over. Where is the undo button for life?

I woke up grumpy, my own fault for staying awake late and having to get up early.

The kids were slow in getting ready, did the opposite of whatever I said and were making us late... ok this happens almost everyday around here. But yesterday just seemed extra trying.

Then I had my own frustrations with myself later that afternoon. Laundry had accumulated so I had a million loads to do. Dishes were piling up, I hate dishes. My vaccuum cleaner clogged (my fault for vaccuuming up a cand wrapper that was obviously too big). Then came the biggest task... my garage.

I moved over a month ago... ok almost 2 months now. I am still not organized. There are still a ton of boxes to unpack. In those unpacked boxes are things I need. Important things.

So I started to tackled the boxes. After unpacking and sorting over a dozen, I still have not found my important things.

This added to my grumpies.

Then came dinner time... an hour later than we normally would eat thanks to earlier events. The beasts were hungry. The beasts were tired. The beasts were loud. Dinner was not fun.

With dinner done and over it was time for jammies and "quiet time". Apparently me and the kids did not have the same plan.... they ran and fought, and yelled and cried and no matter how many times "no", "you are going to get hurt" or "stop" was yelled and threatened, they kept going. Ok, time to feed the beasts again... bedtime snack time.

After tantrums about the wrong bedtime snack, the wrong bowl for the snack, the wrong cup, wanting the tv and so on.... I thought I had finally earned some peace and quiet. The middle beast was in her bed and fast asleep... time to settle the youngest beast. Ya, not so much.

Oh he was quiet, but it was an "I am doing something I shouldn't be quiet". I found him shaking juice out of his cup on to the floor to play in. So I took the cup and a tantrum insued. For both of us.

After 2 hours of whining, crying, yelling, and just plain naughtiness, we were both at our end.

He flailed on the floor and then chased me as I took the cup to the kitchen. After some negotiations, he got the cup back but had to sit on my lap with it. All seemed fine for 37 seconds until I realized he was now putting the juice on his hands and licking them.

So away went the cup again, and the screaming and flailing resumed. And that was when I earned my timeout.

Instead of getting up and putting the cup in the sink like a calm adult, instead of telling him no for the 100th time, instead of yelling, I did what any tired, grumpy fed up 2 year old would do... I threw the cup across the room.

And it was then that I knew I needed a timeout. I had my oldest take him so I could go and regain my mommy composure.

After my timeout, I felt beter. He was tired. We snuggled on the couch until he fell asleep and all was right in the world again.

Next time I think I will take my time out before I reach the point of acting like a 2 year old. At least that is the plan.