It gets better

Dear Mom with multiple young children,


I had 3 kids in 4 years.  Not as crazy as some of my friends, but still... 

I can remember at times being so overwhelmed that I would say to one of my friends with older children "It's so hard!  I can never keep anything clean, it's always loud, and someone is always crying!  I'm in a perpetual state of crisis management!".  For some reason whatever supportive friend was around right then would always say something like, "It doesn't get any easier".  Awesome.  Thanks. 

Today, I had an epiphany.

  J had surgery on Monday so we've been trying to take it easy.  Today was his first day back at school and I checked him out early.  I laid around on the bed with him for the afternoon and we played some Skylanders (his current obsession) on the iPad. 

When I came out of the room after some quality alone time with the eldest, the house was a mess.  Sigh.  Here it goes again. 

But guess what.  It didn't take me long to clean up.  No one screamed the entire time I cleaned up.  One of my children was even WILLING to help me clean up (GASP!). 

And then it hit me.  My life is so much easier now!  This is not just a one time occurence.  My life, in fact, has gotten much easier over the past 6 months.  My youngest is 3, Daniel is 4, and Jeremy is 7.  I no longer walk around in a state of pure exhaustion.  I have been able to concentrate on fun things lately like developing their character instead of running from task to task just trying to make it through the day.   


I get what some of my friends were saying.  Some things are harder.  It's incredibly hard when your elementary aged child tells you friends at school made fun of him.  It's not a problem you can just fix, like a dirty diaper.  It's hard to handle direct disobedience when they're of the age that you KNOW they know better.  I mean, a 2-year-old yells "NO" to you and you almost expect it.  A 7-year-old doing something they know they're not supposed to be doing?  Whoa Nelly!  Hold me back! 

But what I don't have to do:
Get up in the middle of the night (multiple times)
Clean anyone's butt (most of the time)
Hawkeye the children when they're in the bathtub
Interpret their cries to determine what exactly is hurting
Diagnose ear infections
Get spit up upon
Change clothes 3 times a day
Make sure there is ALWAYS milk in the house
Agonize whether the kids are OK in the church nursery
Worry that my kid is 'that kid' at the gym (you know what I'm talking about)
And a SLEW of other things that just WEAR. YOU. DOWN. 

Guess what I can do now? 
Leave daddy with all 3 kids (which I could ALWAYS do, I for some reason chose not to - I'll blame this on lack of sleep). 
Go on a date night with 1 of my kids and get to learn fun new things about them.
Take a shower and shave my legs without having to get out to rescue someone.
Cook dinner in relative peace.
Set my kids up with some imaginative play toys and walk into the other room for 15 minutes (YES!  15 MINUTES!  I know you won't believe me, but sometimes they'll entertain themselves for a WHOLE HOUR!). 
Sleep!  Glorious sleep!  For 8 hours.  Or more!
Have more than a 5 minute conversation on the phone (OK, occasionally.  We're still working on this one).
Go to the park without ANYONE melting down.
And a SLEW of other things that make me happy I have 3 children.  Close together.  That can play together!


All this to say,

Mom with young kids - it does get EASIER! 

Hang in there.

Laurina


Just to prove that I'm not lying - obligatory photos to prove it.  :)

The two youngest sleeping in the same bed.  Allie is always sneaking out to go sleep in the bed with her brother.

Allie and Daniel actually playing nice at the library.  Jeremy was at the computers behind Daniel.  The past month has been the FIRST time I have been able to take all three to the library without feeling completely frazzled upon departure.  There were almost always tears and frowns from the librarians at our lack of 'library voices', inability to walk, inability to actually sit down during story time, and insane ability to be able to disappear from mom's sight. 

Further proof, playground trip with all 3.  Jeremy even fell off the TOP of the monkey bars, shed a few tears, and it was still a fun, successful trip to the park.  Everyone got there happy, everyone left happy.  This, too, is a recent development ;)