Lady of Tumult

[too-muhlt]

violent and noisy commotion or disturbance of a crowd or mob; uproar: a general outbreak, riot, uprising, or other disorder: highly distressing agitation of mind or feeling; turbulent mental or emotional disturbance. —http://www.dictionary.com

–i.e., my mini-crowd of three children.

I once told my mom that I believed that one day she would find me tied up in my home with my three little savage children dancing around me to some kind of rendition of “The Lord of the Flies.” She considered this to be a high probability since my house can be somewhat chaotic at times. I have no doubt my mother-in-law feels the same way. In fact, she once left our noisy dwelling during a visit and checked into a hotel because she couldn’t handle “our normal.” It left me a bit bewildered, are we really that bad? My children do have a knack for being rapscallions but they are quite lovable, too.

After almost 12 years of parenting, I guess I am still on a journey to find the appropriate discipline technique to make my kiddos the perfect little angels we all dream of. I’ve tried countless variations and as soon as I find one that I’m sure is the right approach, they out-maneuver me and then–checkmate. Oh, and my husband is around here (somewhere), occasionally jumping in once he finds me sobbing on the kitchen floor in complete frustration. However, he prefers to wade in the shallow end while I’m out there swimming with the sharks, trying to figure it all out . In the meantime, these kids make life quite interesting. I figure if I write about my struggles for other moms to read, they just might look at their own kids and realize that they actually don’t have it so bad. Whatever I can do to bring a smile to someone else’s face is worth it, right? It’s my own tiny contribution to society…even if that smile is actually a condescending smirk because at least their bratty children don’t torment them as much as mine do!