If you have seen Lord of the Rings, you know what a Nazgul is. Tonight, Luna was one.
I tried to send them towards bed early. They were given a time to get jammies on so we could chose a TV show. They asked to play longer. Fine with me! So I set up the timer, warned them when it was getting close to zero and let them play.
Then Luna lost it. She didn’t want to have snack, books and bed. She wanted to watch TV. She knew they made the choice not to watch it. Sigh. Then she screamed because she didn’t want snack. Then she wanted a different book than Soleil. Then she screamed because I used the Superman toothpaste instead of the Princess toothpaste. Not that we HAVE Princess toothpaste. Apparently, that’s at the store. But she wanted it. And then she screamed because she got a blue flosser instead of a red flosser.
I finally got her in bed at 8:25. And THEN the fun began. She started sobbing for Daddy. Daddy daddy daddy daddy. Screw mommy, just want daddy. I stayed very calm during all of this. In part of my mind, I feel that we baby her too much. She is 3.5. She should be able to not need someone with her. Of course when Daddy is gone, it throws her into a panic, so she doesn’t sleep as well. So of course I need to give her more attention. But of course Soleil more attention. Which is why Luna finally feel asleep at 9:50 and Soleil is watching the Vancouver vs Colorado hockey game with me.
I made lunches at 10. Put the garbage and recycling out at 10:15. I am exhausted.
How do you single parents do it? Or parents who have the partner travel a great deal? HOW?
I feel your pain. The nazgul visited my house last night too. It was bad enough with (my) Jay home, so I really feel for you. Nights like that suck.
Hang in there, (your) Jay will be back soon.
My kids never ask for Daddy for anything specifically, though they do seek him out for wrestling games. Don’t get me wrong – they adore their father, but when they are tired or scared or cranky or sick…only Mama will do. There have been many times when I wished DH could put the kids to bed, but then I remind myself how short a time this all is…soon I’ll be staying up late wondering when they are coming home to bed!
Ugg. I can’t imagine being a sigle parent, although my husband doesn’t really see the kids or help me much during the week…(he works late) how much lonill you get relief??
I really don’t know how single parents do it either. I always joke with DH that if he’s not home by 8:00pm, I don’t care when he comes home – once the kids are in bed, I don’t really need him around!lol My kids are pretty easygoing overall, but I just can’t stand the being on duty all the time that’s involved with single parenting – I need my time too. Hope the rest of Jay’s time away goes by quickly!
Julie
Well, first of all, I have one child. While this doesn’t make being a single parent easy by a long shot, it does at least mean that I don’t have to split my time and attention between two or more kids. I think that would be a challenge even with two parents around.
As far as how I actually manage from day to day, I may have to write a blog post on that. I don’t think it’ll fit in the comment box!