Do I really have to savor every minute of this parenting thing?  Because I don’t think I can truthfully.  A lovely Sunday morning, where all I truly want is to watch Charles Osgood, drink coffee, fantasize about an orderly week full of possibilities.  

But that’s not what I get.  I get a husband working all day, a ten year old telling me he is bored every five seconds (apparently it is my job to entertain them), a five year old who wants to paint my nails, a nine year old who gets hit in the face with a soccer ball (yes, because they were playing in the house) and is crying.  Polly Pockets that no one has played with in two years need to be found, its an emergency of whining proportions.  Now the nail polish is out, two are sitting on each other screaming, one is crying because the other one turned off the Disney show she has seen 50 times.   AHHHHHHHHH !!!!!  I want to hide.  I want to go for a walk.  I want to read a book quietly.  Not screaming, not fighting, not wanting.

They then want breakfast, different menu items, because they are starving.  Two bites in, they realize they really weren’t hungry at all.  So that’s over quickly.  Oh, now they have a taste for homemade pumpkin muffins.  One wants a haircut.  One wants to play football, or basketball, or trampoline but there is NO ONE to play with and apparently nothing can be done alone.

Between the fighting, the sitting on each other, the arguments over the TV, the soccer ball through the living room, the cooking and waiting on people- I can’t take it.  And it is 10am.  I know you are supposed to adore your children every freakin’ second.  Cherish these moments that are so quickly fleeting by.  Is it bad that I’m not?  Is it bad that right now I am wishing I was single and young and living in the city, and my morning was filled with a chilly fall walk through the leaf covered sidewalks to a warm cafe where I sit and read the paper while savoring my scone and latte.   Ummmm.  I am so bad.

I know there are plenty of folks that have that Chicago morning alone, who would trade me in a hot second for the confusion, whining, fighting, annoyance of my kids.  

I recently read Glennon Doyle Melton’s wonderful book Carry On Warrior, which I loved.  She talks in one chapter about the need to Carpe Diem her kids, and that it is expected to cherish every moment.  She relates the funniest story about being at the checkout at Target thinking “I can’t even carpe 15 minutes in a row with my kids,” and how that is really ok..  Hearing someone speak the truth is so empowering.  It lets you have permission to think the bad thoughts, and then go saior your kids for the rest of the day.

Or 15 minutes at least !!!