Calgon, take me away!

I had one of those mornings that may very well ruin the rest of the day. I haven't gotten over it yet anyway, and it's almost noon. There's no point in reliving the whole story, but suffice it to say that at the very moment my two oldest boys were supposed to be catching the carpool to school, all four boys were crying for four very different reasons. And only the baby's tears were justified--he was hungry. I lost it. I yelled and sent the older ones off to school in tears. Their teachers probably think we're dysfunctional, not to mention the other carpool mom. (But then they have young children too, so maybe they'd understand if I bothered to explain, which I'm not going to do.)

I keep wondering why I get the blame when things are chaotic, and why I get little or no credit when things go smoothly. I love my boys, but I'm frustrated and discouraged and if I wasn't related to these kids I think it would take a six figure income to make it worth my trouble and stress and worry and everything else!

For a long time now I've felt like one of my biggest weaknesses and the thing I need to work on the most is not losing my patience and my temper with my kids. I keep trying, but I don't feel like I'm making any progress. Just telling myself that I've got to stop yelling sure isn't working. The thing is, I think my kids are fairly well-behaved, and I like to think I'm a fairly patient person too. But maybe I'm deceiving myself on one count or the other.

Well, maybe now I've gotten it off my chest enough to go do the laundry. Here's wishing you a better day than mine!