Ten Things I Know about Parenting Right Now.

This is a photo of my four, awesome children.

They are currently aged 5, 8, 12 and 12 (that is not a typo, the girl ones are twins).

And these are the things I know about parenting right now, in this moment….

1. If all your kids have shoes on both their feet five minutes before you are due to leave the house you will kiss the floors, that have not been washed in a week, in gratitude. Odds are someone will be missing one shoe by the time you make it out the door though.

2. You’ll waste time worrying that you sound like your mother then suddenly you’ll hear yourself repeating the things your kids say complete with the eye rolling that drives you so bonkers… “Oh come on!”

3. And while we are talking about eye rolling, if it was an Olympic sport you could melt down all the medals your kids have won and pay for your retirement!

4. Your car will always be full of crap and there will never be agreement over what music to listen to on the 10 minute trip to school.

5. You will discover that being able to share shoes with your daughters is equal parts awesome and terrifying. So is reading the same books.

6. Deciding if someone is too sick to go, well enough to tough it out, or faking it to get out of something they don’t want to do, requires a degree in medicine, psychology and being a human lie detector. You will only get it right half the time.

7. Even though all your kids sleep through the night now, you’ll still be tired, because you are still trying to cram way more things intp your day than you actually have time to achieve. Plus it will take approximately 18.7 years to get over the extreme lack of sleep you experienced when your kids were small.

8. Your phone will be full of very strange images – the photo of the school notice you lost five seconds after it entered your house, the tag of several items of kids clothing so you can remember what size they are after you cut the tags out, a photo of the bottle of wine your friend told you was the perfect gift for any teacher, and many many blurry photos of what you how are your children’s faces and not their bare bums.

9. In the rare moments where there is a unanimous agreement over the goodness of a dinner you will weep with unbridled relief.

10. Just when you think you have found some semblance of control and peace over the current challenge, a new one will pop up to remind you that things will never be easy.

Share your parenting wisdom.

I’m sure you’ve discovered some parenting truths and have some hard won parenting knwoledge to share! Leave a comment below and tell me what you know about parenting right now.