Mom Life!

Oh, the joys of parenthood! Better yet, single parenting of three boys! Life is never dull, rarely quiet, and always interesting. In my home I am the only female. Even my dogs are boys. The amount of testosterone that runs within the four walls of my little, country house could give Conner McGregor a run for the money in the ring!

My oldest is going to be 13 this year. *groans* I will be experiencing “puberty parenting” for the first time and find myself looking for the manual that my children must have come with at birth. Surely, I misplaced it leaving the hospital!

I know I am not the only one living on the working side of the great American dream. Working, raising kids, being two parents in one body, as if being Mom alone wasn’t hard enough. But, I am here to say that it is one of the most rewarding things in this world! But it is definitely work, and sometimes the most testing on my patience. Let me share an example of a day in my world, and how much fun we have!

7-ish-am (after a long night of broken sleep): Stumbling blindly through the house, I find my way to the coffee. After first cup is made, and first sip is gratefully taken, I move on to the task of waking the little cavemen. Oh, the joy on the faces of my three musketeers every day, as I calmly barge into their bedrooms to yank off the covers and “lovingly encourage” their resisting bodies from their beds. Most mornings I turn up the radio, and sing along in the car, to drown out their cries for mercy as we get closer and closer to the school. There’s a daily, tired but cheerful “have a good day. I’ll see you at 3!” as they creep slowly toward the door of the school from the drop off line.

I teach GED classes in my community, part-time. So, there are a couple of school days where I go from my children’s school to my classroom, and a couple of days where I run errands and then do my own school work while they are at school for the day.

Being a student studying for a master’s degree program myself, I take every moment I can to do my own school work while the boys are in school. That is not the case every day, however, and some days I find myself falling behind. Housework, schoolwork, laundry, appointments for myself and the children… you name it, I’ve been early, on time, and late for all the above!

I pick up very happy and energetic children from school at 3pm, and we are off to the house. Homework, chores, and free time all kind of happen at once in my world. If there were three of me I could manage all their homework at the same time. And if there were three MORE of me, I could do housework, my school work, and fold all that blasted laundry, too!

Alas, there is only one me. Supper can be anything from a gourmet meal to ramen noodles any given day. Depending on Momma’s energy, attention span, emotional, and mental state by supper time. The kids know if Mom is making a salad, or chopping vegetables, to stay far from the kitchen! But those days are few and far between. Most of the time there is music played in the kitchen while I prepare food. The boys are old enough now that they enjoy helping… until it’s time to clean up, of course. But making supper is always an adventure, whether I’m doing it alone, or the with the help of the troops.

After supper is served, and eaten, we move on to evening free time! This is everyone’s favorite time of the school and work week. The musketeers play video games and watch movies, and I watch Netflix. I highly recommend Netflix to anyone and everyone who has free time on their hands! I could binge watch for years! But that’s another post for another day.

The final part of my day is what I affectionately refer to as “Bedtime Battle.” This is the grand finale to every day in my life, from Sunday night to Thursday night. We start showers and brushing teeth as close to 8:30pm as possible, and somewhere between 9:00 and 11:00 we are all finally sleeping. My youngest has ADHD, and my oldest is on the Autism spectrum. They both have issues falling asleep, and the youngest has gone through a few different attempts at sleep aids, with no success yet. My oldest just lays in bed and mentions that he is still awake every few minutes, until he is finally silent and sleeping. Every night with my youngest (my little monkey) is like a new experience. It ranges from an after-party type of event, with bouncing on beds and restlessly pacing the house, to a pre-zombie state where he just sits on his bed, staring at the wall, and/or gets up and comes to my room where he stands beside my bed and stares at my wall. I rub his curly hair and encourage him to rest, and eventually he sleeps.

I finally get to lay back, relax, and bask in the peace of the end of yet another day. It feels good. Eventually I slip into my usual, restless slumber, and start over again the next morning.

Now, this is just a sharing of a normal weekday. I will elaborate more on our exciting weekends another time. At the end of each day I reflect on the ups and downs of the day we just had. My boys are my life. They are my joy, and they are the testers of my patience. They have a sense of humor that leaves my sides sore from laughter multiple times a week! They are quirky, funny, active, VERY intelligent, and we learn from each other every day. I go to bed every night thinking of ways to make the next day even better for me and my little men. And every day we do the best we can in our family.

I am just one voice. One mother. I know that there are many single moms out there who live this life and count every day a struggle and a win. We are some of the strongest people out there. And there are days when we feel like we are alone. We aren’t. I salute all moms out there. Moms of babies. Moms of youngsters, and teenagers. Moms of other moms! When you fall into your beds at the end of your day, smile big. You made it.