motherhood, what did i sign up for?

Who knew that having teenagers was this time consuming and emotionally draining.  The idea of having babies, when we were newlyweds was sweet, but what a young gal (like I used to be...) didn't think about, was that they grow up. They turn into children and then teenagers. Those sweet little babies that smiled up at you when you nursed them, with milk running out of their mouths, now can eat you out of house and home. They are smelly and needier than ever.  DO not get this post wrong. I love my babies/children/teenagers/bottomless pits more than ever. But when are they going to figure out that in my old age, I am set in my ways. When my mind is made up, I will rarely change the decision. Stop trying to argue your way out of chores. I don't care that you just did the dishes, I need you to do them again...because we've had another meal. And had the dishes been cleaned right, after the first time you washed them, I wouldn't make you rewash them. You wouldn't have to put up so much laundry if you a) wore the same jeans more than once before you sent them down to be laundered and 2) didn't wait until you didn't have any clean underwear left before sending down your dirties. I wouldn't make you put the clean clothes back up into your room, if you didn't send them down to be washed in the first place. If you had flushed the toilet after you peed in it, I wouldn't make you go back upstairs to flush it. It is your job to take out the garbage, so take the initiative to take it out, before it is heaping and I won't have to yell at you. Nor would I make you go back outside to put the garbage in the can if you hadn't placed the bags beside it the first go round.  Before you go have fun, your room must be clean. No negotiations on that one. Also- when I can't find your little sister's crap, (like matching Sunday shoes) because you have crammed it (them) into the farthest darkest part of your closet or in some weird place in your room, then I tend to go ape shiitake crazy. There are dozens more scenarios like the ones listed above, that has made living in the brown house hard lately. I'm sure that one day the memory of stepping on legos, reminding teenagers to wear their retainers, or for children to brush their teeth/hair, or to put on deodorant will be a fond one but, "today is not that day." (what movie???)