My top 6 parenting questions

1. Is that where your ____ belongs?
   
2. Why did you do that?
   
3. Why is this still on if nobody's using it?
   
4. Do we live in a gymnasium? (Usually followed by item 2)
   
5. Why must I constantly repeat myself?!?!?!
6. Why must I constantly repeat myself?!?!?!

Not that any of my kids would even know what this means, but most days I feel like a broken record. I say the same things over and over and over.... and over. I hate the sound of my own voice.

Are you all familiar with The Parents' Curse? If you're not let me clue you in. It's something a parent will say to their child when the child is being particularly difficult. It goes something like this; "I hope you grow up and have 5 kids just like you!" My parents invoked The Parents' Curse at least three or four times a day.

It worked.

And more.

Don't get me wrong, I love each and every one of my kids. They're all wonderful in their own right. But they can all also be miserable in their own right.

Whether it's picking on their younger sibling, not wanting to do homework, running around like a maniac, resisting housework at all costs, mouthing off, not listening, dumping everything that is on or in a table onto the floor -- or any of the multitude of sins I know I was guilty of as a child, they can truly drive me nuts. There are times when a week or two in a padded cell doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

But do you want to know what's really scary? They haven't even come close to the really bad stuff I did. That doesn't come until 15 or 16 years old. And our oldest is almost there. *shiver*