I am the mother of 5. Yes, I said 5. Our children range in ages from teens to a toddler (hence my title). We have 4 girls and 1 boy. Our oldest is 16 (Macy), we have 14 year old twins (Victoria and Jessica), an 8 year old (Haley, who may not be a teen but her attitude and dramatic flare really classify her more in the teen category), and our only boy is 3 years old (Ethan). We recently added a member to our family, Tucker a 6 month old hound mix. So now I have 6 kids to clean up after.
Not only do we live with the standard challenge of teens and a toddler, but on top of that our oldest (Macy) has type 1 diabetes and one of the twins (Jessica) and our son (Ethan)also have asthma. Ethan also is allergic to peanuts. I suffer from chronic nerve pain in both of my arms and hands from an overuse injury 16 years ago. (I don't talk about it much, I am more of a deal with it and ignore it kinda woman).
My daily goals are: not to yell, to have some kind of order and cleanliness and organization in the house, to at least try to accomplish something at once a day (feeding and napping with the 3 year old don't count), and of course to manage the health of all the children in the house.
I don't always accomplish something. There are very few days I do not yell, the house is usually a work in progress, and on any given day 1 of the 5 are sick. I am also always tired! Not too surprising I suppose, but irritating none the less. Sam Elliot said in one of his movies "there will be plenty of time for me to sleep when I'm dead". Maybe for me it will be when the kids are grown.
We are a combined family, kind of the yours, mine, and ours thing. My wonderful husband closed that gap recently with the adoption of our older three girls. Now we only share Haley. Not only do we share her between us but also with her mother and her other father. (We try not to use the words 'step' in our house). Luckily for all of us not only do we get along with my husband's ex-wife and her husband, we are all close friends. Both Dianna and I thoroughly enjoy confusing people with our friendship. (her and I really need to start a blog together).
I worked full time for 7 years. I enjoyed working a lot. Even though it wasn't easy going to work every day, paying someone to watch the kids, and missing what was going on in their lives I can tell you it was a hell of a lot easier than being a stay at home mother! I may have worked long hours before, but now I work 24/7. I may have been tired when I was working, but now I am exhausted!
For all you stay at home mothers who haven't worked outside the home...don't ever let a working mother make you feel like you don't work as hard as her! She has no idea how much harder it is to stay at home full time!
Important note regarding my blog...I don't have advertisements, I don't do paid product reviews, and I make no money from my blog. I write to share information, educate, vent, and at times just for entertainment purposes.
