Taking a Much Needed Break

For some reason, there's been a lot of stress running rampant around our home. Once it hits the boiling point with parents, the kids start reacting to it as well and then the stress level skyrockets even more. It's gotten to the point where I'm struggling to get to the end of each day without having cried multiple times or locked myself in my room for a few moments to keep from screaming at the top of my lungs. I've been frustrated that it seems like all I do is break up fights, clean up messes, go to work, come home for an hour with my husband, then go to bed and do it all over again.

The boys have been fighting non-stop and yesterday it all hit the fan. I was breaking up yet another fight when I happened to get in the way as Aiden was winding up to throw a Thomas the Tank Engine toy at Nathan. I was beaned with Bertie the Bus right in my eye. It hurt so much, I couldn't keep from crying in front of Aiden. I felt a little bad for doing that because he got very, very upset that he had made me cry, but maybe he needed to see it to understand that hitting someone with something actually hurts them. He kept apologizing for quite a while afterwards, so I think he got it. But my eye was swollen and turning purple....a great way to look while at work. I got a lot of the swelling to go down, but an hour or two later, while breaking up another fight, Nathan ended up head butting me right in the nose. We added some purple to the other eye! I was able to make-up myself fairly well before work, but people could still tell that I was slightly swollen around the eyes. I also had some trouble driving because my actual eyeballs hurt and I had some difficulty in adjusting my vision from near to far (a problem I do actually have since I'm farsighted, but it doesn't usually affect my driving). I'm still in some pain around the eyes today and had some issues getting my eyelids to open all the way when waking up this morning. Who knew being a parent was so darn dangerous??

So since I was about to snap and feeling like I wanted to run screaming from our home, John decided that it was a good idea to plan some no-kid time. Thank goodness for my husband....we will be completely separating ourselves from being parents tomorrow night as we leave the kids with John's parents, go out to a fun dinner (a jazz club downtown!!), and then we'll be staying the night at a hotel! I don't have to go home on our date night to a kid toy covered living room!! And maybe I'll actually get some decent sleep since our mattress really needs to be replaced and I haven't slept through the night in months. This is so needed, I'm getting a little teary eyed just thinking about it.

I love my children so much, but I will tell you that as a parent, we are not meant to spend every waking moment with our children. It will drive you insane. You cannot be a good parent if you're stressed and frustrated to the point where you just want to leave and not come back. Thank goodness for grandparents who love their grandchildren enough to keep them overnight so mommy and daddy don't go crazy! I'm looking forward to this more than I can say, not just to release myself of parenting duties for a while, but also to spend more than an hour with my husband. Hopefully this will prepare me for a heavy workweek for both of us - we won't see much of each other until next Friday evening.

Let's hope my next post will be coming from a fresh and re-energized perspective!