Duvet Day with Children....

I remember the days before I had children, thinking how tired I was after work and how all I wanted to do was lie on the sofa and groan with the lights on very low. These days when I finish work the true work is just beginning! First I have to go and collect the boys, a mission in itself after battling through rush hour traffic. I am very lucky in that my parents look after my children for free whilst I am at work. I don't know how we would pay for childcare if they didn't live so close as for both boys it would be over £1000 a month. It really wouldn't be worth me working at all! When we get home I then plonk Son 2 in his highchair while Son 1 slinks off to watch TV while I hurriedly through some stuff in a pan, otherwise known as preparing a meal. Son 2 wails in his highchair the whole time as I thrust bread sticks in his chubby fists and desperately race round wishing I was still at work. After lots of clanking of pans, the inevitable dropping of a couple of plates etc I then summon Son 1 to the table. 9 times out of 10 this results in an argument. Finally after using a variety of methods, he eventually agrees to come to the table and sits slumped with his head on his arms. I then have to spoon feed Son 1 (who is 3 and a half) as he has no interest in food and seems to have some form of toddler eating disorder where he needs no food to live. Son 1, 8 months, happily feeds himself although makes sure he gets as many crumbs into all the nooks and crannies of his highchair as humanly possible. I stuff some food down my throat then attempt the mammoth task of clearing up. Shouting is inevitably involved at this stage. After about 10 minutes I give up and assign that job to "Daddy" who is making the hour and a half trek home from work completely exhausted. Bed time is equally as traumatic, not helped by living in a 3 storey house with about a million stairgates.

Anyway, back to the duvet day. Both the boys have a bad cough at the moment, since Son 1 is asthmatic I have to watch him very carefully lest we end up in hospital again on one of those machines they have for asthmatics. Son 2 has two aims in life at the moment - get hold of and destroy my mobile phone, and deprive me of as much sleep as possible. Of course when they are ill, I am ill too. Currently my throat is on fire and I have an eye infection to end all eye infections....so the time when I actually need the most sleep, I am getting hardly any as am nursemaiding my two little ones....welcome to parenting.....