Wednesday, March 11, 2015

What to Expect When You Live With the Unexpectables

One of the "joys" (tribulations? frustrations? angst-ridden nightmarish truths?) of parenting is the randomness of it. You never know what to expect next or when to expect it, especially the really ugly, messy bits (its all very similar to the birthing process, really).

One moment your children are getting along perfectly, entertaining each other well and the next moment...they are are hurling toys and random insults (a snobit-poof-face?). One day your four-year-old is perfectly willing to dress herself and the next is yelling at the top of her little lungs at the mere suggestion. Perfectly able to take an escalator without incident one day but not the next. Willing to allow tired-momma a short nap one day but! The very. next. day.  It involves discovering a colourful mess of epic proportions.

I should have known something was up. After 15 minutes of trying to sleep, I got out of my bed and walked into the living room. There was orange and purple paint everywhere. A huge puddle of paint occupied a sizeable portion of the rug and little orange footprints radiated out from it. Apparently, it had become a hilarious game of how-daringly-do-we-play-with-the-naughty-naughty-spilled-paint.

I know what you're thinking at this point. Where's the picture? Alas, I am not one of those parents with amazing foresight and always with a phone at the ready. I am also not very cool or collected in these situations. I totally Freaked Out. I cannot even remember what came out of my mouth, I only hope it was G rated and not overly childhood-PTSD inducing. But I do remember the hours spent scrubbing the rug.

Chaos happens. Expect it.