Friday today and a day at home with the children.  The day started in the same way as it always does. I snoozed Alexa as I really did not want to get out of bed. I left it a little late to get up and then helped the kids to get dressed. We left the house on time and then left daddy at work.

Arriving at Aldi we sat in the car park waiting for the shop to open.  My aim was to buy as little as possible and run down the food in the cupboards.  Taking the children with me did not help me achieve this.  My 7 year old added baked beans to the trolley as apparently we really needed them, along with a few other things. Once we got to the checkout we had three bags full.

Do your children behave when out shopping? mine rarely do.  Life is never dull when they are around.  After making me stressed in Aldi my 7 year old was then very chatty with the sales assistant.  There are times that he does make me proud despite the naughtiness.  As the shopping was being scanned he started to ask the man if he had had a good new year, then my 5 year told him that she got a lot of presents.  They are difficult children but they can be very friendly.

Morrisons was next, I again had the children pushing the basket around the floor. See Friday stress after Christmas.  When we got to the self-checkout they both climbed on the conveyor belt. My son then had the idea of walking off with the trolley full of baskets.  He walked them to the front of the shop where the rest are stored.  I watched him as I scanned the shopping willing him to empty out the baskets and bring the trolley back.  Needless to say that after I had paid for the shopping I then showed him how to unload the baskets and then watched him take the empty trolley back to the self-checkout.  The sales assistant waved in appreciation.

We then loaded up the car and drove home.  My plan for the day was to tidy the kid’s bedrooms, help them with their thankyou letters and then cuddle up and watch a film.  My day did not follow this plan. How rare is it for a child to do what you want them to do? My son tidied his room and vacuumed it.  My daughter refused, she then brought some of her teddy bears into his room as it was being tidied.

I discovered today that they have a dangerous game, one which someday is going to get somebody hurt. They are piling up cuddly toys under the windowsill in my son’s bedroom and then jumping off the sill into the toys. Sounds ingenious until you realise that if they jump a bit too far they will go crashing into the wood on his bed. Telling and then ordering my 5 year old to stop did not stop her jumping.  I guess at the ages of 5 and 7 you do not see the dangers, all you see is the fun.  I’m really hoping that nobody gets hurt or they stop doing it.

The children then proceeded to be difficult, today was not the calm day that I had hoped it would be. I hate being a shouty mum but today I was.  Telling the kids that they can not eat in the front room is ignored. I get fed up finding toast on the carpet and on the chairs.  My son asked me for some milk, I let him have some and made him drink it in the kitchen. My daughter then decided that she wanted some. She then helped herself and ignored me when I told her to drink it in the kitchen.

This lead to milk all over a cushion that does not have a removable cover and the beaker being sat in the armchair.  I stood annoyed about the cushion, not noticing the milk sat there. She then picked up her beaker and dropped it all over a throw and the carpet.  It was an accident but I sent her to her room.  I now had to shampoo the carpet which due to being a  bit broken means I have to put my fist in the hole in the dirty water box otherwise it does not suck the dirty water out of the carpet.  See Tuesday a Care bear and a broken Vax.

Shampooing the carpets will be harder until I buy a new dirty water box.  Someday I will replace it, at least it will be clean.

So our day did not go according to plan, both children got sent to their rooms and were made to sit on the stairs during the course of the day. I felt like a rotten mum but how else can you teach them that their actions are wrong and they need to do as they are told? To not hang off the back of the chair or stand on the piano.  Not jump on the settee and knock the picture down or ask Alexa to play music very loudly or fight with the light sabre in the front room near the television.  Yes, I am exhausted and all I really wanted to do today was cuddle up with a film.

Tomorrow Daddy is at work and we still have the Christmas tree to take down.  I am hoping that the children can help me with it.  I am imagining chaos and tears as I get more and more stressed with them playing with tinsel, baubles and lights.

Anyway, I am now going to get some rest, ready for the stress of tomorrow and the hard work and the joy of my job of being mum.