The Gang's All Here—Oh, No!

Though you’d never know it by our schizophrenic Colorado weather, summer has arrived here at our house. The field days, classroom parties, and nonstop activity of the past two weeks have given way to lazy mornings and the unending search for something to do. I’ve heard that boredom is a child’s best friend. It’s when they’re bored that they write, draw, imagine, create. I love this idea in theory, but in my experience, it’s also when they fight.

If it didn’t require potty-training a toddler or breaking up fights between hair-pulling siblings, parenting would be pure joy. But the incessant bickering, blaming, poking, tattling, squabbling, and screeching wears me down. A child’s home may be the laboratory in which they learn to get along with others and resolve conflict, but we’re one stolen Lego away from thermonuclear meltdown. And I’m the mad scientist running around with all sorts of theories and formulas trying to make order out of this chaos.

This summer, I vow to turn the corner. This is the summer that will be different, the one the kids will remember, for better or for worse. We will learn to harness all that energy for good instead of evil, getting over ourselves in pursuit of loving and serving others. We will work as a team, realizing and applauding each other’s unique contributions. Brooka’s older siblings will see her friendliness as a gift instead of a constant embarrassment. The girls will see Braden’s need for structure as useful instead of bossy and confining. Addison, the middle child who fights in both directions, will somehow be the glue that holds us all together.

And by the end of the summer, maybe that toddler will have potty-trained herself.

A mom can always hope.