Does anybody else snooze the alarm on a work day?  Rolling over just to sneak in a few extra minutes.  The thought of phoning in sick, then remembering you have responsibilities and today is monday.  Due to snoozing the alarm, it becomes a mad rush to dress my 5 year old, after getting her of bed. Daddy will always get up earlier and help our 7 year old who is always awake at 6.00am. Getting our son to sort himself out and then to get his shoes on before we leave. Mornings (and evenings) are team work. The daily frustrations of getting ready for school and out of the door on time.  Most days we manage it, then curse the heavy traffic and say if only we had been 5 minutes earlier. Why is it that the traffic changes so quickly minute to minute?  The usual drive to school and breakfast club. Same routine, day after day.

So today I survived the work day, my morning meeting and emails. The busy traffic, listening to the radio in the car.  I enjoy Radio 4, I especially like listening to “You and yours” as I drive between places. I also like the radio plays, some of them a distraction from the drama of my own life.

At the end of the long day, after sorting dinner and listening to the kids read. We attempt to put them both to bed.  Now an hour later I am sat watching the usual soaps and we are still trying to get the kids to bed. Is it just us who can’t get them to just go to sleep? Shouting up the stairs and running up and down them. It is no wonder that they are both tired the next day. My daughter is affected the most, tired, grumpy and easily upset. Now she is sat on her bed looking at books. I tell myself that at least she is being quiet and surely she will fall asleep soon. I’m to tired to keep going up to her and is that the best answer anyway?  If only there was a solution that made every 5 year old go to bed and sleep.  My two kids definitely do not follow an instruction manual.

The on going exhaustion of a parent, as at 9.30pm in the evening my 5 year old shouts down after falling out of bed. Back up the stairs I go to find she has got stuck whilst reaching down for a book. Head on the floor and legs in the air. Lifting her back into bed, she insists on having some books in bed with her. I am hoping now that she will finally go to sleep.

They say being a parent is the hardest job in the world. My two kids are both amazing but why can they not be easier? Why can 7.30pm not be bedtime every night? Why can’t I tell them to do something and they just do it?  Being a mum is not something you can add to your Curriculum Vitae but I am sure there are a lot of transferable skills. Negotiating with a child is never easy however bribery with a biscuit may sometimes work.  Would be nice if that skill would work as well in the work place.

Thankfully day off tomorrow, but still need to take the kids to school and to breakfast club. The same morning routine and no lie in.  I am grateful for the days that I can catch up with myself. On weeks where I have worked the whole week, the house is even more of a mess and the washing pile is higher. How do other mums manage? The ongoing mental drain and the roundabout of being mum.