The rains had hit our city in full swing and the government had declared holidays for the kids. And I don’t mean to sound like a bad mother, really I don’t. But I can’t help but dread what the next few days would be like.
I like routine on a general basis. Kids going to school, me running my normal errands. Picking the kids from school. Feeding them lunch. Etc etc. Everything is planned. My day is sorted from morning to evening.
But when the kids are home. Err, well now thats a different story. It’s absolute chaos.
For starters, the good side of the holidays are, as parents we get more time to sleep. (Thats what we think). I mean, no more getting up an hour earlier to prepare the lunch box for the kids, laying out their uniform, taking forever to wake the kids up, right?
So on a holiday im sleeping peacefully in the morning and all of a sudden my 5 year old twins are up and about, I see the time and it’s only 7:00 a.m!! I scream at them and tell them to go back to bed, because on a school day I literally have to drag them out of bed as late as 8:00 a.m. I pull the sheets over my face hoping they get the message and they’d do the same. But I always get the ‘mama, we can’t sleep, we want to play’!! I wonder in my head, who really plays at 7 in the morning?? But seeing their faces and their energy I get my answer. Having no choice i drag myself out of bed and start my day.
On holidays, my twins have the freedom to watch a little more television than other days. So the house is filled with sounds of PePpa PIg, Sophia, Ben and Holly etc. I don’t remember the last time I saw an adult series. No really I don’t.
A friend asked me the other day, ‘Have you seen ‘The Game Of Thrones’ or ‘Greys Anotomy’ or ‘Breaking Bad’ or ‘Modern Family’ or ‘Entourage’
To which I replied with a ‘huh?’ (I felt I lived in another planet ).
Another thing that the kids really do when they’re on a holiday is EAT.
‘I’m hungry’. One of my twins say. ‘Ofcourse darling, I’ll cook up something quickly for you’ i say with so much love. Little do I know that I actually have to do that every 15 min!!
‘Mama I want maggie’ one of them says. ‘Mama I want pasta’ the other one says. ‘Mama I want cupcakes’. I stop, take a pause and I think, wait a minute, i am in the kitchen ALL the time!!
So then I tell them that mama needs a break too and I tell them to play.
When they play I already know the house is going to look like it’s hit by a tornado. I do know. But still, I convince myself that they are kids after all and that they need their space to explore and I let them be.
A messy house I can deal with. But being a referee is a different thing altogether. Now, this generally happens when you have 2 children (or more) your dealing with. They’d be calling you every 5 minutes because ‘They can’t find a particular toy which they last saw a year ago’ or ‘They end up fighting’ or ‘She’ s not playing with me’ or “She isnt sharing her toy’ or ‘they’re bored and want new toys’. Honestly, I don’t know which is worst but being in that situation, all of them really are.
So I take deep breaths, change their mood and tell them I’m taking them out. ‘YAYY’ They scream in unison. I join in the excitement and start getting ready. Later, we get into the car, and I turn the volume of my favourite song. (I always forget I could have a preference too). But, sadly that is short lived too. Because they start singing their rhymes on the top of their lungs in the background.
Luckily, recently I invented a new game. And I tell them, ‘Sweetheart, let’s play the quite game’ and they say ‘yes mama, we want to be the winner’. Okay, so the cliche here is, winning to them is EVERYTHING. They actually do keep quiet the entire time till we reach our destination because if they utter a word, they lose. And losing for them is not an option. Very smugly, I play my favourite song, turn up the volume and listen to it without any background disturbances. For once I can think about me too.
The remaining day, as well as the rest of the holidays goes with some struggles as well, more cooking, cleaning, tripping over toys, cleaning, being a referee, cleaning and then putting them to bed.
But in the night when my twins are peacefully asleep. I can’t help and be uoverwhelmed with love no matter how mad and exhausted they make me.
I do realise that this phase is temporary. The madness. The mischief. The crying and howling for absurd things. But at the end of the day their eyes are searching for me and only me. I know the time will come soon and they won’t need me as much as they need me now. So I try and take it all in 😊
And as a friend told me the other day ‘They’ll go their own ways one day. Might as well enjoy the TLC’.
shalz83 