Lots of people talk about parenting being "hard" which I don't think it is, really. There's nothing particularly difficult about it. But it is challenging, mind numbing, infuriating, joyous, funny and mentally and physically tiring.
I've been feeling pretty good about how I'm coping with my two bundles, considering the horror stories I was told about having two children.
But I am really, really tired. So tired, in fact, that I bought a pregnancy test last weekend! Which was horrifying for a number of reasons, not least the fact that on the list of "Things I Want To Happen Right Now", Get Pregnant absolutely does not feature. Anyway, crisis averted, I realised I am actually just exhausted.
Parenting is an active job. J is wearing a pedometer at the moment, aiming to reach at least 10,000 steps a day for a work challenge. On office days where he doesn't fit in exercise, he really struggles to meet his target, in fact one day he clocked as low as 2,500! I couldn't wait for his first full day at home with the kids to see how that measured up, and I wasn't disappointed - he did 12,500 steps.
It's physical. My muscles are sore from lifting kids ALL day. My back aches. And I only have two of them! How my mother in law and grandmother had seven is actually beyond me.
But what I find more trying is how mentally exhausting it is. It is at times mind numbingly boring, and you can actually feel the brain cells dropping off. At other times you are in a futile battle with a toddler over getting dressed and your newborn is overtired and screaming and you feel as if your brain may explode out of your ears. Then there are the 100,000 things you need to organise and remember, the dates and grocery lists and information that need to be stored inside your otherwise under-utilised brain.
I'm not whinging! I love it and never want to do anything else. I'm just tired.
Z x
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