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HOW DO YOU PARENTS (ESPECIALLY MOMS) DO IT? I QUIT

I quit. I have less patience than I thought and I can't do this anymore.

I found myself having my 11 year old nephew for a 3 week long visit. That was fine. He's a pretty good kid but needs to be entertained often. I managed to sneak time in from work to take him swimming and to the movies and out to lunch.

Little did I know my new nephew was going to choose that time to make his appearance into this world leaving me in charge of my brother's 18 month old terror and the 11 year old. Now don't get me wrong I love that little girl but she is quite the handful. Especially a handful to someone who has never had children. So just to add to the chaos I also had temporary custody of another siblings dog. This dog does not like children or anyone he doesn't know, lives indoors (which sorry I'm not a fan of) and is a finicky eater. Oh....he will bite!

Well I find myself (while Mom and Dad are dealing with an emergency C-Section) running in circles trying to keep the animal happy but away from the children, adjusting to the different diet requirements, DIAPER CHANGING-ugh! tons of dirty laundry and all the other chaos that goes with children. All the while managing to squeeze in some work. Of course you know that's just the time things started to get busy for me.

Sunday morning I decided to get them out of the house, give us all a break and go to the local McDonalds and pick up breakfast to take to Grandpa's house. GOOD IDEA or so it seemed until some nice gentleman got out of his car to tell me my tire was going flat before his eyes. He was kind enough to fill it with air for me and I ditched the idea of the McDonald's line with his suggestion to get somewhere FAST! This is specifically the time the 18 mos. old decided that it was time for a tantrum. Now I am really STRESSED. We make it home with a screaming child and get the wonderful call that her Daddy is on his way to pick them both up. Suddenly the energy to pull all their things together just came out of nowhere.

No I didn't get any work done that day. All I could do was walk around my home and LISTEN TO THE QUIET!

My hats off to you Mom's and Dad's- I'm just to old! I QUIT!

Posted by Sybil Holcomb on 07/10/2007 07:58 AM

Comments (14)

14 Comments on HOW DO YOU PARENTS (ESPECIALLY MOMS) DO IT? I QUIT

JUL

2007

There is a reason most children are born to young people. It takes a lot of energy to do it. Single parents are the heros of our world.

I was married for 17 years and have 3 biological sons,I spent the 8 years during the divorce and after that as a single parent ,I know that the Pc folks out there would say divorced parent but that implies he was active in their lives and he was not\is not .I got married last fall and now have 2 step sons , thats 5 sons they can sometimes be a challenge

JUL

2007

LOL...Mine are all grown now but when I babysit my grandson...he totally exhausts me!

JUL

2007

David - You are right. Youth must be the key.

Margaret - That's a lot to do by yourself. Then add 2 more to the mix. My hats off to you.

Monika - I understand. It's been 4 days since they left and I still don't have my wind back!

Thanks guys for the comments.

JUL

2007

Sybil: I feel your pain! I love my grandchildren more than anything in the world and they are very good children but when you are not around children routinely, then babysitting for an extended period of time can be quite the challenge. I've found that I just don't have enough energy anymore. And real estate, I my stars, how in the world can you get any work done. Although, when the youngest one takes a nap, I do have a much better chance. But I wonder why it is, that everytime I think I can finally plan a little time off with my family or just for myself, that that will be the time customers show up or start calling that I've been working with for months and months. It is true, that's how it happens. The last three times I've planne to go to my son's for the weekend, or just one night, I will get a call to list a home the day that I'm supposed to leave. It's happend again, just yesterday and I am supposed to leave today. Oh, I hope I don't sound like I am complaining, I'm really not. In this slow market, I am very happy to have the work. But it does strike me funny how the timing works out. Must have something todo with Murphy's law. You were a brave woman to take on so much. By the way, thanks so much for the associate add!

Wow..... what a day for you, huh? I have a little one growing inside me now. I know life will be crazy but I dont know how drastically crazy.

JUL

2007

Donna-- you made me laugh! Juggling kids and work can be really, really tough- especially if you're not used to it. I work at home so that I can keep an eye on my 3. Sometimes that jumps to 5 or 6, depending on how many neighborhoods pile in. It's exhausting!

JUL

2007

Donna - I tend to like the really short visits. Maybe spend 2-3 hours with her while her parents go out to dinner. Hopefully I won't get caught in anymore extended time stays like that one. Finally did recover. Thanks for the reponse.

Sandi - My hats off to you!

Oh I remember those days!! I had several children in tow when I was conducting town hall research years ago for my real estate apraisal assignments. I was lucky my kids were not tooo bad. Both of my children are now grown and I look back and think how the heck did I do it all??? I am glad they are both grown and I do not think I could handle it anymore now that I am older. Raising children is probably one of the most time consuming and can be the most rewarding jobs until they wear you out!

Congratulations you made it through it all !!

Darcy Fox

Assist An Agent (A div of Fox Realty, LLC)

JUL

2007

This is funny, and fairly familiar too. I have not had one of these scenes in a while as my neices and nephews are a little older now...BUT, at one time, I was losing it whenever I had to spend time with the terrible two times two...My twin neices drove me to tears when I they were about 18 months. I called my parents crying that somebody had to come and get these kids before I loose it.

They really will drive you crazy if you are not equipped to handle them. I always give my sister her dues as she has 6 children ranging in age from 1-12.

I couldn't do what she does on my best day!

JUL

2007

Sometimes I have to remind myself to stop. Turn off the real estate and really listen to my kids. I have 4 year old twins that are out for the summer. This is my first year in RE and trying to juggle them and my work has been extremely hard. To top it off I was on a team with a leader who didn't understand the stress of having my kids and working. He decided to stop giving me any leads and make me feel like a piece of poo.. One Sunday, I was at a park with my family, and I had a call from a buyer. She wanted to look at one house. I told her what I was doing, but I could meet her in a couple of hours. I even told her I had my family with me, would that be ok. Of course, she said that was fine. What ended up happening was we looked at 5 houses with kids in tow. Thankfully they were good. But the lovely buyer decided that my broker/manager should know that my family was with me. He was quite the character after that.

Needless to say our children are a true gift from God. I try to cherish every moment with them.

JUL

2007

Even as a parent, other people's kids are very hard to take care of. The trick is with your own kids, is you have learned where their off button is and have learned to ignore them.

Someone once told me that parenthood is not for the weak. And I fully believe it!

Glad you got your wind back, and glad you chose to share. Reminds us how much moms and dads really do.

JUL

2007

It was hard to juggle both sometimes. We took a lot of DEEP breaths and said....this to shall pass!! Now they are 12 and 10 and a lot easier to handle (in some respects). Glad you have your life back. Thanks for sharing your story!

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