Time Out Does Work

Yesterday was a crazy day, super busy, a lot of fun with friends and swimming, gardening, just crazy busy.  I was worn out by my bed time.  However, when I woke up this morning I didn't feel like I had slept much. 

You know when you reach that point in pregnancy where you have to wake up every hour to get a drink of water because you are SOOO thirsty, so then an hour later you wake up because you have to pee.  Then as soon as you fall back asleep, the unknown kid is shoving a foot in your ribs or decided it is time to do a jig or practice boxing.  That is when I realize that it is super hot in my room and I am covered in sweat, so I turn on the fan.  Then an hour later I wake up freezing because I have no covers on and the fan is going full blast and so is the air conditioning.  So I get all covered up and slip back into much needed slumber only to have a really bad dream.  I wake up and feel freaked out AND parched.  So I debate for five minutes if I should get out of bed and get a drink and risk the scary guy that must be hiding in my house or the giant bug that I for sure will step on, but my thirst wins, so I dash to the sink, gulp water and run back to bed.  Then I have to pee and it all starts over again.  :)

Well, that was my night.

So I woke up with a feeling like someone has twisted my muscles and braided them into knots and there is a pulsing throb all over my head, especially when I hear any noise.  Which happens to be Matthew yelling, "MAMA!!"  over and over again so that I will go and get him out of his crib.

Let's just say I wasn't in the best mood.

Then Caleb starts automatically begging for cereal, which we are currently out of, for the third day in a row.  But, Tyson did do the dishes before I woke up, bless his sweet heart.  He is lucky too, because I'm sure if he hadn't I would have found some reason to be mad at him too, but his niceness took my edge off.

So after Tys left for work, I just went and sat outside to cool off and relax.  All the boys followed me, but at least they had the whole outdoors to distract them.  But, the mosquito's the size of half dollars decided I hadn't been bothered enough.  Darn them and their itchy poison.  I did read my scriptures while outside and weeded for a few minutes before I couldn't take it anymore.

I went inside and of course my sweet little ducklings followed.  After only five minutes, I knew I needed to get far away from them or I was going to say something mean to the little guys that weren't responsible for my crankiness.  I went to my room to get dressed.  I figured that would help me feel better.  No sooner had I shut the door and they realized I had of course purposefully shut them out of my life and they were going to starve and die and have psychological problems.  All four of them stood at my door kicking and crying and whining.  Seriously, I had not been in there for a minute, like 60 seconds.

So I did the only rational thing, told them I needed a time out and to leave me alone.  Then I took my sweet time getting dressed.  They quickly lost interest and disappeared to go play with their Duplo towers and buildings.  Never has somewhat silence felt so nice.  It probably was about five minutes, but I could feel the tension slide off me like melted ice cream.  It might have been the Tylenol kicking in, but I was SO much better behaved when I came back out to join my motley crew.

So moral of the story: when you are having a rough day, take a time out.  It doesn't make things perfect or the kids less whiny, but it does help.  I am all in favor of time out for Mama.