After Halloween's three long days of sugar highs and lows, 15 total hours of sleep (yes, that is for all three 'nights'), four trips to the school in one day, three parties to attend, and six costume changes- six, I repeat; I had a minor breakdown.
A couple little snotty fits of "NO" yelled at me with doors slammed in my face. Children unappreciative (do they ever become such?), and flat out refusal to put warm layers under their costumes. I adamantly declared "I quit, and I'm not caring anymore!", and made my way up to my bed to lie down.
Yep, I threw a snotty little fit right along with the rest of the females in the house by the time the evening of the lovely 31st of October rolled around. Mick was gracious enough to give me time to relax and took the girls trick or treating around the ward by himself. It still did not settle my frazzled nerves enough. It took a half hour drive to Tree town, a long frustrated and cold cry in the car, Mick giving me some much needed supportive love and pick-me-ups, leaving the kids in grandma's care for 24 hours, 12 hours of sleep, and then I was fine.
Does holiday havoc leak it's ugly self on any other mothers when holidays are three days long?
Please tell me I'm not alone.
At least the kids looked cute and had fun in spite of their ornery mother.
Our cheery Elephant
The Lib duckster. She was also a vampire, for which there is no evidence because she was too annoyed to have her picture taken and I was attempting to pick a battle. Now, I'm sad, as this was my favorite costume of her three.
Cinderella with the fairy Godmothers' leaf wand.
Fairy PrincessDon't let the sweetness of this next picture fool you. She is beautiful though.
But this is more like her attitude:
Hands off the bird!
For next Halloween, I'm making a plan and setting some goals.
-Find a good costume box with child locks
-No sugar for the mom until the day after. The sugar yo-yo is not beneficial to my mood swings.
-Get plenty more sleep, like maybe the recommended 8 hours a night would do.
-Only one costume per kid. I mean really, can it be so difficult to put my foot down on this one?
-Relax, be a happy mommy and have more fun. Who cares if the costume falls apart. Fix it for the 100th time and get over it!
Feeling slightly defeated by Halloween this year.
Great costumes!!! You DO appear to be happy in the first photo, even if you didn't feel like it! I absolutely LOVE Halloween, but Josh was dang sick of it by the 31st as well!!!
ReplyDeleteLove the costumes! It is hard to believe that those sweet little faces gave you such a hard time (wink wink) seriously I remember many such moments when my kids were little - sleep is a good answer!
ReplyDeleteThey DO look adorable! I was always the frazzled mom at Halloween who could never think of creative costumes. My poor children always had crazy, uncool costumes. It was such a relief when they could finally dress themselves up. Which I'm sure they learned at an earlier age than usual just to escape all my outlandish stuff:)
ReplyDeleteKristin
Oh my goodness, your girlies ARE so cute! Let's just focus on their adorable mug shots and put the rest behind us... shall we?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, lack of sleep can turn even the most gentle of mothers into monsters! Been there, done that!
I received this letter.... and it helped me keep Halloween in perspective:
ReplyDeleteFor those of you that will be attending fall festivals, trick or treating, halloween parties, trunk or treating or anything else we can call this weekend I want to address a few rules for Moms & Dads, Grandmoms, Grandads, aunts, uncles and anyone else that might be participating with children for the afore mentioned events.
1. It will be hard, it will be long, accept it, know it, embrace it.
2. Have fun, you will never get these days back, there are no do-overs.
3. Have Patience, your kids will not even be able to contain themselves they are going to be so exited. They will be bouncing off the walls, will want to wear their costumes at 9 in the morning, will wake up like it is Christmas morning. It may not be a big deal for some of you but it is a huge deal to them. (See number 2)
4. Don't over-schedule! Be realistic as to what can really be accomplished. Don't try running errands with kids that are so stoked to go out and celebrate. Reschedule things that can be rescheduled so you all can have fun together! (See number 2)
5. Be prepared - have a game plan as to what is going to happen. Where are you going, what time, who with for how long. Once you know, explain it to your kids AHEAD of time, do not expect them to just agree with you and leave quietly. It will not happen. (See number 1)
6. Be the fun one - let's say that you want to leave or stop trick or treating at 9:00 pm, tell your kids 8:30. Then when they ask (beg) for a few minutes more say YES! They will never know what time you really wanted to leave and you get fun, cool adult status for the night! (See number 2)
7. Do not Procrastinate - if you need supplies get them as soon as possible! Don't be the one in line with your kid half way dressed on the way because you needed to get the last few things. It will make your kids crazy and in turn make you crazy. Right now make a list of anything you need to do. Review the list. Delegate what you can if you can and make a game plan. (See number 1) (PS - don't forget the flashlight and check the batteries!)
8. Plan your meals ahead of time - the drive thrus will be crammed with all the people that did not plan and the pizza places will be hours behind due to the volume of people that called before you did. Plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. You will be so glad you did (See number 2 ) If you don't plan for this you will pay with hungry, tired cranky kids! (See number 1)
9. Go to bed as early as you can the night before you start celebrating, plan a quiet evening if possible. Try everything you can to ease into the day. Sleep and good nutrition will really help keep the crankiness at bay. I am not saying that there won't be cranky times but you can take preventative measures to reduce the length and number.(See number 1)
10.) No Yelling - unless it is an emergency and it warrants yelling. How you behave will set the tone, if you are cranky, tired and yelling your kids will make you even crankier, more tired and you will yell more and so it goes. (See number 1) If you make every attempt, no matter how frustrated and tired you may be, to establish that this is all about fun they are more likely to follow. (See number 2)
11.) Listen - if your kids are telling you they are hungry or thirsty, they are. If your kids tell you that they need to go to the bathroom, they do. If they tell you that they are tired and want to go home, they do. I guarantee that if you are not listening or putting them off, it will cost you big. (See number 1)
To sum this up for you, it will be hard but make sure you have fun! You won't get this time back, make great memories; you all deserve them!
Log it away for next year ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa! I needed that! Now, logging away for next year. Common sense tells me that these are commons sense, but when you are not thinking sensibly, common goes right out the window. That is where mine went anyway.
ReplyDelete