Excuses Excuses

When you have children you find that your world is suddenly opened up to a whole host of excuses you use to get out of doing things. Sometimes these excuses can be used when you actually don’t want to do something... “ohhh it’s SUCH a shame I’ll miss your Tupperware party Thursday evening but by the time I’ve got the kids both bathed and into bed I’ll have missed most of it anyway... maybe next time eh?” (Okay, I totally made that up – I don’t have anyone inviting me to Tupperware parties, and if I did I would go as it would be the social highlight of my year so far, in fact perhaps even the decade so far).

Sometimes you just get into the habit of not being able to do anything you want to do because you have children, so as soon as something out of the ‘norm’ is suggested you already know you won’t be able to do it, even if you want to. More often than not it is something that you could technically do, but you know that your life wouldn’t be worth living afterwards for at least the rest of the day. So if someone asks me to do anything between about 12pm and 3pm at the moment it is pretty much instantly ruled out, because both Isaac and Oscar nap during this time – and its Isaacs only nap - if he doesn’t get it on time, and for a decent amount of time, he’s a holy terror for the rest of the day (and often that night too). Writing this down that doesn’t seem too bad. I can read it and see why you would think “well surely, for a one off, that doesn’t sound too bad?”. But for some reason it is. I live in fear of ‘rocking the boat’, I have two children well under two, and am stretched thin pretty much from dawn until dusk, and this kind of occurrence can stretch me until breaking point; at which time I’ll dissolve in hysterical tears and declare my children to be torturing me on purpose and wishing them away. I know this isn’t true. It’s because they haven’t napped, and they haven’t napped because I’ve taken them out somewhere at nap time. It’s all of my own making and that makes it worse. As such I have a whole host of excuses as to why certain things, or things at certain times of the day just cannot be done. “Oscar will need his milk then”. “We’ll need to feed them then and there’s nowhere to sit down”. “Isaac will need to nap then”. “We need to be back in time for such and such for such and such to happen”. The list is endless. I’m on holiday in Orkney at the moment, and we are pushing the limits on the things we do. I’ve got backup here with the kids grandparents on hand to hold/feed/walk either or both children, and their daddy on hand to help with everything else, so I do not have to survive the entire day by myself all alone with the two boys. I have support, it means I can leave the house more confidently at times that would normally fill me with dread and send me running to the cot with the children in tow, so if we do miss a nap? What the hell, daddy can deal with it right?

A day without a nap is like a cupcake without frosting.