It's Friday night. It's 7:43 pm. I'm sitting on my couch feeling like a very hip mom. I have a fall comfy outfit on, a messy ponytail, and my glasses on, writing a blog. Now the question is, how does a mother of three small children get so lucky? Well, quite frankly, this mother hit her limit. My three year old does this thing that drives me crazy. WHINE. CONSTANTLY. And my five year old has a great response..YELL AT HER SISTER. So tonight, after unsuccessfully trying to use the restroom alone in silence, I hit the limit. I calmly stepped from the bathroom, and after taking the three year old to the "potty" ordered them both to bed. Which is where they are now.

So now I am sitting on my couch, watching "Parenthood" on Hulu Plus, blogging. I love my children, but doesn't mean I have to let them torture me. A friend gave me an article this week about allowing our children to make us feel guilty, and I realized it is right! I do not believe that children should be "seen and not heard". I am not even against a "lively" household. What I am against is my children freaking out on each other every five minutes. And I don't want to spend my whole evening yelling at my children. So I feel like sending them to bed early is a just punishment as well as a great way for me to not feel guilty for yelling at them all night. Win/win right?

Being a parent is hard. Everyone knows that. It's no surprise. We lie to ourselves when we have our first baby and tell ourselves, "That is everyone else. We totally have this under control." And we do at first...until they become a toddler and then we realize that we don't have all the answers, parenting is really hard, and we are borderline traumatized. But despite all this we usually go on to have a second child, and some of us really brave folks have even more. But the lesson I have learned is balance. Wait, correction, I have learned what I need is balance. I haven't exactly figured it out 100%. But I'm not talking about overall balance. I'm talking about you need balance in discipline. And a completely different type of balance in extra circulars for your children. And another type of balance in good eating habits. 

Overall, I hope the end result is well-balanced children, who understand that I love them, but I will correct them if it is needed. I truly believe that you can be fun mom (notice I said mom not friend) and have children the respect you and know the boundaries. Now....how to figure that all out...