Being a Parent is Just Plain...

HARD!!!!!

Parenthood is not for the faint of heart! To be a parent, a good parent, an effective parent, you have to put in the time, the sweat, the tears, and sacrifice a little of your sanity to help mold your children into respectable adults. For example, if you want children with a good work ethic, then it means you will spend countless hours finding work for them to do and then try to discover ways to get them to do the aforementioned work: chore charts, incentives, and on occasion, bribery! Yes, it is easier to give up and do the work yourself, but no one (unless they were horribly misinformed) gets into parenthood thinking it will be easy! It means sticking to your guns amidst whines and protests; it means missing that trip to the pool or watching that movie, because they have not completed the task at hand. Yes, it means often punishing yourself for the greater good. Today as I tried to cajole my children to clean their bedrooms, I realized early on that it was going to be a day long process; I had so hoped that they would see my reasoning, clean their rooms quickly, and move onto the fun. Sadly no, Braden and Brooke sat, talked, and protested in their oh so endearing (note the sarcasm) passive aggressive way. It first began with a simple request, "Brooke and Braden, I need the two of you to make Brooke's bed, because you both slept in it last night." And so began the fight; it seems Braden was not making the bed to Brooke's standard, and in order to get him to bend to her will, she began to whine (I'm sure you can guess how well that went over with Braden). Well, after listening to this for quite some time, making a couple attempts at playing referee, and trying fruitlessly to tune it out, I had enough of the assault on my ears, from both the whining and the tattling; I finally went into Brooke's bedroom and instructed Braden to leave the room. I explained to Brooke that if Braden was not making her bed how she wanted, then she could do it by herself. This of course brought about more protests, whining, and collapsing to the floor like a rag doll (can I tell you how much I HATE when she does that?!!!!). I'm here to tell you, it is also very hard to stay calm when you have to continually listen to WHINING!!!! I, with all of the patience I could muster, reiterated to Brooke that she would be making the bed by herself. The begging came next. "Mama, will you please help me? It is too hard for me. Please?" "No Brooke, I will not help you. You had a helper, but you didn't think he was doing it the right way. You can see if he will help you, but I am not; maybe if you go to him without whining, it may work." To my absolute joy, a few minutes later I heard Braden and Brooke working as a team, not only making her bed, but then painstakingly arranging her pillows just so and adorning her bed with a teddy bear and my old Snoopy stuffed animal. Regrettably, this was only my first battle for the day, next up, Mama versus the knuckleheads in the Clean Room Wars. Again, they came out swinging, but in the end I prevailed; Braden and Brooke decided to work as a team and help each other clean their rooms. Brooke excitedly ran to me with her grand plan; I told her I thought that was a fantastic idea, while I was really thinking, 'I don't care what you do, I just want those rooms clean sometime in this life!' End of story, right? Wrong, oh, so wrong! I then had to face one of my toughest opponents,

Emma!

As I was letting down my guard, putting away my weapons of war, the chore wars; this

little gem decided to take the rocks out of the fireplace and scatter them all over the carpet. So, I had to put my battle garb back on, get my game face on, and sit beside her as she painstakingly picked up the rocks and placed them back in the fireplace; right then and there I decided a fireplace screen would my next investment.

I also thought about the investment I am making in my children every day. Being a parent is hard, but all of that hard work is an investment for the future,

their future.