My children: Three peas in a pod sometimes

With three children in the house, I’m always busy. My children are 11, 13 and turning 43 later this year. Regardless of their age, they have many things in common and they are all depending on me. The easiest of the lot is the 13-year old. She makes her own bed, keeps her room neat and puts her dirty laundry in the laundry basket. The 11-year old doesn’t make her bed unless I’m there to help her, she doesn’t put away her toys unless I tell her to and she puts her laundry on the floor until I tell her pick it up and put in the laundry basket. The 43-year old uses at least five shirts per working week and two tennis-shirts on the weekend plus seven pants or shorts, same amount of boxers and socks. As he quickly filled up the laundry basket in the master bathroom, I got him his own basket and assigned him the chore of taking care of his own laundry. The first days he smuggled his laundry into my basket, hoping that his shirts and slacks would pass unnoticed into the laundry machine. My hawk eyes picked up on the alien clothing and it were immediately transferred to the correct laundry basket. 

   His laundry basket, with embroidered "easy to follow" instructions (not followed though...)

All three children fight with each other and they all come running to me either to tittle-tattle or to have me resolve the issue. Lately the 13 and the 43 year old have not been getting along so I’ve been practicing my diplomatic skills. In my own family, I’m a top diplomat, in the real world I have very little tolerance, patience and understanding. Blood is thicker than water for sure. All three children go to bed too late and are tired in the morning. The two youngest I try to chase into bed at 21.00 but they never fall asleep until at least half an hour later. The oldest has to mind his own bedtime but sometimes I call him to bed when he’s burning the midnight oil. All three children are tired in the morning, the 13-year old is the easiest to get out of bed. Luckily none of them has a bad temper in the morning.

All three children sit with their iPads during the commercial breaks on TV and they all bring their iPads when they are planning on spending some time in the bathroom. Speaking of bathrooms, my children have a sixth sense. As soon as I’m in the bathroom they come and want to talk to me or want me to help them with something. My 13-year old often wants me to help with her hair when I’m in the shower, the 11-year old wants me to help her with a  zipper or a button and the 43-year old always comes in the bathroom and says ”woo-hoo, a naked lady”. Same thing when I’m on the phone or on Skype, they can be invisible for hours but as soon as I’m talking to someone they all emerge from where ever they've been and need to talk to me.

Yesterday was an excellent day! I had a good talk with both my 13-year old and my 43-year old and showing off some great diplomatic skills. I cleaned the entire home and did grocery shopping for the weekend. I was in a fantastic mood, feeling very happy and liberated from heart ache. After a long creative drought I came up with an idea for a new children’s book and my girls approved of it. It’s warm and sunny outside. Life is good. The weekend is here and that is when my 43-year old child steps things up and turn into my husband. He will fire up one of his three Webers and make a barbecue – ”baaaaarbie” as the Aussies call it. That’s what separate boys from men – the barbecue. Oh how I love my children but I prefer when it’s the weekend and we are two adults and two children instead of weekdays when we’re one adult and three children. 

P.S: As people love to speculate, I'd better point out that everything's peachy in Wonderland and my husband (and best friend) has been consulted and approved of this diary entry.