Can you help me?

The title of this post would suggest that I need some help. I do, actually. I need a lot of help. But for this discussion, those in need of help are my children. I know in a few years I will regret this feeling, but some days I wish they would just leave me the heck alone for a few minutes! My goodness! I mean, they've only been awake for a couple of hours and have needed more help from me than I have energy to spare. Mom, I need you. My kids need me to lay next to them to go to sleep. They need me to walk with them to the bathroom. They need me to prepare food for them. They need me to get them a drink and a pencil and to change the channel and to find their favorite book and to sit next to them. They usually wait until I am in the middle of something else or have walked to another room before they tell me what they need. And if they don't get what they need right away, they are impatient. They need to yell to the other room so I can come to them and they can remind me what they need. Please, you are old enough to wipe your own butt! You are able to find your own doll. You have the ability to walk to the kitchen and push the button on the water cooler and get yourself a drink! Is it just me? Maybe as a child of a full-time working mom, I learned to do things for myself more than others. Am I expecting too much of my girls? Am I giving them too much responsibility at too young an age? As I sit and write this, they need hand lotion. Guess what - the lotion is in the same place it has been every day of your life!!! Can you get it? I mean, I am able to do it, so should I? Or am I setting them up for bad behavior? Am I making them into the type of people who don't know how to do anything for themselves? Funny, I met someone once who told me his kids are not allowed to start a sentence with the world "Dad". Well, my kids never start any sentence with that word because every sentence they utter starts with Mom. I know one day I will miss this. I will miss them needing me for every little thing. I will want them to need me. I know, I know! You can remind me of it in 10 years!

Remote Control

Child won't take a shower. Child won't do reading log for school. Mom says no more television for child for the rest of night. Child goes to sleep. Mom sits down to watch the favorite TV program she's been waiting all day for. Mom realizes angry child has hidden remote. Mom - 0 Child - 1

Leisure time

Apparently, there is quite an uproar among women these days. Now, it isn't the type that might cause us to run out and burn our bras. Let's face it - no one is running out and burning up that $50 bra - that kind of stuff happened in the days when most ladies were rocking the playtex and crossing their hearts. The problem? Some sociology professor who found that moms have about 40 hours of leisure time each week they don't even realize. I didn't even bother to read the study (because that would cut into my leisure time) but saw some of the highlights. What this PhD considers leisure time to many would be laughable. Like, you get it during a root canal or while sitting alone in a broken-down car waiting for a tow truck. I was discussing this today with a friend. She's got four kids of her own and had three more (including my daughter) at her house to play. I had to laugh because she made the girls cupcakes with homemade frosting. She admitted she used cake mix. Are you kidding? You made the chocolate frosting yourself? You did that while I was home sitting on the couch watching Dr. Phil talk about the sociologist's study about moms and leisure time? Wow.