Skip to main content

The joys of parenting...everyone else's kids.

Frustrated. Every morning this week, we have been getting up at 5:30 a.m. One would think that would be plenty of time to get our morning Bible reading and prayer in as well as get around for what will certainly be a long day. This just also happened to be the week I started back at my part-time job at the newspaper. There I work three nights a week from 8-midnight. The job doesn't particularly pay well, but it helps out with the grocery bill on an already-tight budget. The week gets very crazy come Wednesday... We go to work all day where we are surrounded by kids all day, go home in the afternoon just long enough to get dinner ready and clean it up and then off to direct the children's Bible Club at church (more kids). Get home, brush kids' teeth, get their tired, cranky bodies in bed and crash ourselves on the couch (usually near 10 p.m.). Thursday starts the same way, but instead of children's club it's dinner, clean up, bath night for our three kiddos and work for me at 8 p.m. Somewhere on Thursday I try very hard to come up with a child-oriented Bible object lesson (which is always time-consuming and tough to prepare for) for Friday's chapel, . Friday starts nearly the same with the exception of the baby waking up at 6 a.m. and dropping him off at Grandma's house -15 minutes away. His getting up that early really throws a kink in our ability to get around and out the door in a timely fashion. We get to school where I scramble to gather the materials I need for my lesson. Chapel is first on the docket then bulletins, video bulletin, children's club tasks, news releases, school administrative tasks and office work till 3:30 p.m. Home for a few hours where my kids need mommy and daddy time. That happens until I leave for work. Friday's are usually longer at the paper so I don't get home until 12:30 or 1 a.m. Saturday is housework, groceries, and errands. Sunday is church, work, and church again. Whatever free time I do have is filled with completing a video project for a friend of a family member. EXHAUSTED! All the while -- all week long-- we are around kids. Kids who don't behave and need discipline at school. It is my job to administer that and by week's end I am tired and fed up with dealing with them... I feel it so unfair to my own kids that they don't get the quality time with us that they deserve because we are so consumed being parents to so many other kids during the week. We are guilty of being short and easily frustrated with our own kids, and for that I am sorry. This will happen for the next 9 months while school is in session. One would think that doing this for nine straight years, it would get easier... but the older I get, the harder this routine becomes. Lord help us. Give our kids understanding as they grown older. Help us in our time of trouble!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crossing the Line.... The Sin of Androgyny

  Puke, Vomit, Hurl. These are the best words I can bring up (pun intended) to describe my disgust for cultural androgyny – the societal blurring of the gender lines. We live in a culture where masculinity is criticized for its rough exterior and insensitivity, and feminism is elevated as the preferred trait among men. To succumb to this idea, it is now acceptable for parents buy their son girls’ jeans and allow him to grow his hair out long enough to make Rapunzel jealous. This same culture that belittles masculinity in men, promotes it for women. Our daughters are told that there are no barriers or rules for dress. Anything goes, even if that means looking the part of their male counterparts. Society warns that it would be an epic failure to ask individuals to don a gender-appropriate hairstyle or wear gender-appropriate attire because “you may damage their psyche” and you might “limit their opportunity to express individuality.” In the 1970s, Sandra Bem – the inventor of t...
2 comments
Read more

Avoiding Factions in Fundamentalism

  Factions within fundamental Christianity are ungodly and unattractive. The factions are, for example, those that usually are birthed from education. Specifically, from what I have seen, it pins one school or church doctrine against another. (I know some will be offended by me naming names, but deep down, the following examples are well-known to those who are named) Graduates from Pensacola Christian College are looked poorly upon by Bob Jones graduates, Hyles-Anderson grads and many others (and vice versa). There exists a "rivalry" between Fairhaven folk and the people of First Baptist of Hammond, IN. "Westcoasters" are labeled compromisers by those who consider themselves more conservative. Those who attend Crown College - "Crownies" as they have been deemed - are seen by other fundamentalists as Sextonites . The list goes on and on and includes schools and churches from all around the country. Even smaller local churches try to take on the attribute...
2 comments
Read more

My Dad wants to adopt more children?!

Did the title catch you off guard? At 55 years old, my earthly father isn't in that market... at least I don't think he is. But the Heavenly Father is looking for more children to bring into his family. Last year, I had the opportunity and privilege to write, direct and perform in a Christmas play entitled A Baseball Card Christmas . Some of you may remember it. The theme of the play was the gift of adoption through God's most precious gift -- His Son Jesus. It was a challenge from writing it to directing it, to performing it; but in the end, more than 160 attended and 3 raised their hand for salvation. A success if I do say so myself. Prompted by several to see it published, I found Performance Possibilities, a company started by my former college speech professor. She read it and accepted it for publication. Now, this weekend, the play will be performed by two more churches -- one in Florida and the other in a nearby Ohio town. I feel so honored that God has used th...
2 comments
Read more