It’s a sizzling Wednesday morning in July, and I’m pretty impressed with how I’ve handled having all 3 kids home so far this summer. Sure, I share the credit with Summer Camp and Behavior Charts and Girls Night Out, but I still deserve a pat on the back. (Note: Please don’t remind me I said this when it’s the end of the summer and I and my kids are a complete mess of boredom and frustration. Thanks.)
During the summer one might say I slack off a bit on the home organization. I mean, what’s the point when there are 3 little people here all day who think it’s their job to sabotage any such organization? And anyone who has 3 kids will tell you: the laws of math are bent when adding that third child. The workload (and laundry) grows exponentially instead of congruently, which in turn causes my organizational skills to decline .* So as an example, while I would never have been caught without diapers for kid #1 and kid #2, it can be a somewhat regular occurrence with kid #3. (And seriously, there must be an invisible black hole that eats up the last few diapers in the drawer, because I swear we will end one day with 4 diapers left and wake up the next with zero. Someone needs to investigate that.)
So on this particular day, I realize we’re out of diapers just as I’m putting the baby down for her nap. I briefly panic because this may require me to drag all 3 kids to the store which goes in the category of Things I Try to Avoid At All Costs. And to have to go for exactly one item is pretty aggravating. It seems simple enough, this ‘dragging kids to the store’, but it’s not as benign as it sounds. (See this article for proof. Shudder.) So I need to find a diaper ANYWHERE in this house, or I’ll be hitching up the wagons for Kroger. Seriously, I’d consider taping a dish rag to my baby before I’ll resort to the grocery store. I’d use a soft, clean rag, of course, I mean I’m not a barbarian.
To add to my dilemma, through some magical aligning of the stars, the big kids are playing quietly and nicely upstairs. Did you hear that? Quietly and nicely! I would be a fool to disrupt that. Think, Katie, think. Where can I find a diaper? I scour my purses, overnight bags, the drawer beneath the diaper drawer because, you know, one may have fallen overboard, right? (Don’t think I’m crazy, this has saved me in the past.) No good. Got to think creatively. Under the ottoman. In the toy basket. Surely there’s one I can use in the baby doll bin in the playroom. Please don’t judge me. And then, it hits me: the gym bag! And that is where I find not one, but 3 diapers which means I can get through the afternoon and make the hubby hit the store on his way home! Or better yet, go out BY MYSELF to get them after he gets home! Saved by the Patron Saint of Tired Mothers once again!! (I do pray to this Saint often, along with the Patron Saint of Parking and Patron Saint of Weather. I learned this from my dear Grandma, and she was a ten-children-having kind of Catholic so I do not question.)
After celebrating my victory I stop for a moment and I’m struck with how silly this whole exercise has been. I’m complaining about a simple errand with my 3 kids whom I love deeply, and this from a girl who has worked in the past with many wonderful couples who themselves couldn’t get pregnant. I feel a bit ashamed, for both trying to avoid an errand with my kids and for briefly considering taping a dishrag to one of them. I need a moment of perspective. And then I realize that it’s ok to be completely grateful for your beautiful children while also being grateful you don’t have to take them to the store on this particular day. Because that right there is motherhood in a nutshell.
*Don’t let this deter you from having a third child. They are seriously the coolest kids. They get used to chaos and constant noise from day one and I think that makes for a very chill, adaptable human being. We need more of those in the world.
