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| I surrender!!!!! |
Yes, I'm waving the white flag... I can't go on, I give up, I'm failing, the road has come to a dead end!
I really have no idea anymore, but my children are driving me insane - mornings especially so, you see we live 2 minutes from school but inevitably we're late almost every day!!!
It's not through lack of time or trying though, it's through non-compliance of my children & they just will not co-operate with each other at all (or me for that matter)...
I've done 3 different parenting courses over the years (since Cameron was 4), tried various different strategies, given choices, spoken calmly, etc, etc but I am just getting nowhere at the moment "/
I'm not complaining about my children, I love them very, very much but I'm becoming more & more concerned of how we're going to cope in September when Cameron goes off to secondary school - Scary, eh?!
Scenario this morning (Tues 22/05/12): Duncan wakes me at 06:40, Anneliese is up & the house is calm (bliss). Hermione gets up at 06:55, the house is still relatively calm (just a bit more noise, but no agro yet) & Dunk wakes Cameron at 07:05 (times approx, sorry I don't really clock watch & remember precisely what happened when) - now Cam does not like getting out of bed, he needs much encouragement & prompting.
Duncan leaves for work approx 07:10 (ish) & on his way out the door wishes me luck with Cam (he's still laying in bed). So, I finish packing the lunch boxes, filling the water bottles, put the kettle on & then proceed to encourage Cam up & out of bed to get ready for school.
I was planning on sending the girls to breakfast club at 8am, but that plan soon went out the window.
At 07:30 I make Anneliese's medicine, she's currently on Movicol paediatric plain oral solution - she has to have 1 sachet daily mixed in 62.5ml water (we use squash too, to make it slightly more palatable)...
It's only 1/4 of a cup but oh my word, this causes so much chaos! You would think I'm trying to poison her (in fairness she has a point it is vile, imagine drinking a 1/4 cup of water/squash/tea/coffee (whatever drink you fancy) but with 2 teaspoons of salt in it & you may be close to what it is actually like) - it takes an absolute age to get her to drink it & somedays a damn right battle too, refusals, tantrums you name it!!!
07:45 I tell Anneliese she need to finish her medicine quickly, then we can brush her hair & she can go to breakfast club at 8am, so I then say that I'm just going to get dressed & to speed Cameron up (he'd got out of bed by this point but that was it, sat in his room doing nothing) so he could walk Hermione & her to the school.
I head upstairs, not only to find Hermione (who I'd sent up to get some socks, she was wearing trousers) was getting changed into a pinafore - but Cameron had only managed to take off his PJ's, put his socks on & was in the throws of very slowly putting his shirt on! Give me strength :(
I remind Hermione she still needs her hair brushed & to do her teeth, if the clock passes 8am there'll be no breakfast club. So I'm dressed in 5 minutes, I go back down to brush Anneliese's hair (who still painfully has 2 mouthfuls of Movicol left) - I'm getting a tad annoyed now.
8am comes & goes, so no breakfast club today (same as yesterday) - I come down to make breakfast, Cameron finally finishes dressing & is singing Michael Jackson songs - now ordinarily in a calm mood, this would be enjoyable & funny (Cameron is quite comical & changes his voice, which can be hysterical) but I'm stressed & annoyed, so this is just winding me up as he is not helping in any way!
Breakfast was slow, but eventually got finished, so then I go to brush the girls hair, I brushed & plaited both girls hair.
Anneliese's cardigan needed buttoning up & then I notice this HUGE black stain on the shoulder that wasn't there when she'd got dressed! So she had to change both her cardigan & shirt - Now it's approx 08:40, I plan to leave at 08:45 (children have to be at school 08:55)... Arghhhhhhhhhhh
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| & it never washed out either :'( |
I ask the children to get shoes on, brush teeth, go to the toilet so we can leave on time. I go to clear up the table & breakfast things, as the children couldn't be bothered.
Not 1 of the children has cleaned their teeth, none have their shoes on & only Anneliese was on the toilet! Cameron had gone back to his room & was looking for sunglasses as Hermione had got hers! I am shouting at this point as I don't want to be late & sunglasses are not important... It was 08:50 & we really should have left the house by now!
Anneliese gets off the toilet, washes her hands & brushes her teeth, but then has a tantrum cause she wants sunglasses. Cameron came down with a cap & cinema 3D glasses cause he couldn't find his shades!!!
Hermione is walking round with her head in the clouds, still with no shoes... Not funny, I get sunglasses for Anneliese, Hermione goes to bathroom, Cameron is just being Cameron & twittering on about random stuff not at all relevant!
So I'm really annoyed, grab Anneliese's things walk out the door telling Cameron to get a move on, Hermione followed me & Anneliese out, but he was still faffing around with something. Eventually we sign in to school at 09:02 - still it was an improvement on yesterday's 09:10!!!
