I’ve figured it out, I’ve found the answer, eureka! There IS a way to stop yelling at your kids. It’s called sending them to sleep away camp! Two (very quiet and peaceful) weeks have passed since I dropped off Anna and Adam at camp in New Hampshire. The silence in the car as Oliver and I pulled out of camp (ok..there was the clicking of the gameboy) was deafening. We have clean clothes and the kitchen is spotless. Why? Because there are only two kids and one husband contributing. There are only a couple of pick up and drop offs each day, and since Elizabeth only eats 2 foods and Oliver isn’t much better, the demands on my culinary skills have been close to zero.
Since my oldest is in a production of “Cats” this summer, she has spent her time either rehearsing, sleeping or updating her status on Facebook. This leaves Oliver as an only child. He is in heaven. In addition, my marblejar runneth over. What’s there to yell about when it’s summer and there is only one conscious child in the house? He gets his own cheerios, he paddles in the pool, he goes to art camp. We have dinner at the beach. I sorted through my desk and organized my email. I might be in heaven too.
What’s interesting is the fact that I always blamed a lot of my frustration and yelling on the child who is currently home. True, we aren’t facing homework or tests right now, so the stress level is pretty low, but I now realize that the primary instigators are those two little stinkers who have been torturing their camp counselors for the last 14 days. What a lightbulb moment! Truth be told, any one (or two) of my kids, alone or together, doesn’t pose much of a problem. When there is only one sibling around to play with, it’s no fun to bait each other, and there’s enough of me to go around so the whining and carrying on is practically nil. If it was like this all the time I wouldn’t even NEED that darned marble jar. There isn’t one “good” or “bad” or “problem” child….it’s that chemical reaction that happens when they’re all together that causes all the fuss. That and a few hundred loads of laundry and piles of dishes.
So what do I do now? My peace and quiet will be beating a hasty retreat in 24 hours when my little cherubs come bouncing off that Southwest flight from Manchester. They’ll be all happy to see me and the dog and their neat and tidy closets (man, have you looked under your kid’s bed lately? GROSS) But we know that chaos is returning. We still have some waterskiing camps to get to and back to school shopping and summer reading lists to complete. Elizabeth has her show and then foot surgery, and I’m already wondering how it’s all going to get done; so how can I hang onto this calm and peaceful feeling, or just a shred of it, and have it spill into our everyday marble-less lives? How can I keep a cap on my ranting and still keep everyone moving in the right direction? Unfortunately that is one code I haven’t cracked. But Anna already told me she wants to go to camp for FOUR weeks next summer, so at least I have that to look forward to!
