Patience and the Little Things

As I typed that title, all I could think is that it would be a great name for a garage band. But alas, it is about my foul temper toward my children for just doing ordinary kid stuff. Ugh. I was talking to a friend yesterday about how as my children get older and need less constant monitoring and interaction from me, I seem to have less patience with them than ever.

When my kids were all really small, they were all always on me. I was carrying someone, or nursing someone or just sitting or sleeping with one or two or three children physically on my body in one way or another. Our local zoo has a mother jaguar that had a litter of cubs when my kids were small. She would lie there in the shade, looking half asleep and half annoyed as her three babies climbed all over her, biting her ears and bopping her and each other in the face with their paws. My husband would say “Hey, she looks just like you!” Sigh.

I think when they were really little, I just resigned myself to never being able to do much of anything except take care of them. They found me when I slept, took food from me when I ate, climbed in the shower with me, and poked their fingers under the door when I used the bathroom. They needed me in one way or another every second of every day. And when they were little, I put up with it. I did not love it. I mean some of it I loved, but for the most part it was just the constant presence of lovey, needy, little people.

Now they are older and they don’t need me nearly as much, I can do lots of other things, and I am grateful for that. Unfortunately, I seem to have used up all my patience when they were small and now I have none left  to tolerate the bickering, the neediness, and the refusal to do things for themselves. When they needed me to do these things, I didn’t mind so much. Now that they just want me to, I get annoyed. Blergh.

Maybe my garage band will have songs like “Stop Touching Your Sister or I Will Take the Wii Away Forever! ” or “Get Your Own Damn Juice Box” or  “Someday, I Can Pee and No One Cries.”  Hmmm …