Dad's home, we're in trouble now!

Now ya know, my kids are good kids for the most part. I am complimented by strangers all the time on their behavior in public, which makes me proud. But at home it's a different story. If they are bored for 1 moment, all heck breaks loose, and it becomes uncontrolable. The hardest part is getting the twins to go to sleep. Their bedroom is right above the livingroom, so I hear every noise they make, and by that time I'm drained and just want some quiet, and they won't be quiet. I'll end up yelling up a few times for them to settle down and go to sleep, but after about the 10th time I'm getting aggravated. So he gets home right about that time and I'm ready to snap because they won't listen.

Twins... I didn't have to deal with two that close in age, let alone twins. I guess I would be a bit frazzled myself. I guess one never knows until they stand in someone else shoes!

I've been frazzled with them since the moment they were born, honest! Luckily they're in school now so I get a nice break during the day. I had moments where I seriously just threw up my hands and said "I quit, I'm not doing this anymore". They drained the life out of me. The oldest isn't so easy either. Granted he's getting better with age, but there's times he's the worst of the bunch, and that's saying something when I got 5 kids of different ages. He's smart, and knows right from wrong, and usually recieves great compliments from strangers... but the boy is just a pain sometimes. He's an instigator and an aggravator, and it's always because he's bored! Just thinking about it is getting me frustrated, lol.

See, it's not just the number of kids, but the hours he works. He leaves at breakfast time and gets home at bedtime. So all during the day I'm responsible for the discipline. It gets very draining, because I never get a break. Even when the oldest are in school I still have the little ones home and they are so curious they're constantly into everything. When he gets home it's not so much that I've been tallying what they've done, it's more or less I'm exhausted and can't do it anymore... plus I need a bit of back up so the kids know we're on the same page.

I can understand that!

After I wrote this I just knew I'd get at least one comment like this, lol. Problem is nobody understands my situation. I have 5 kids, oldest is 11, youngest is 8 months. Hubby works like 60 hours a week, gets home no earlier than 8pm, usually 6 days a week. My oldest 3 are major trouble makers. Mostly they're pretty good, but when it comes to getting them to settle down.. forget about it. Nothing works! So by the time hubby is walking through the door, unless by some miracle they've actually managed to fall asleep... I'm at the end of my rope. Last night was especially bad for a million reasons I don't need to get into. So I wrote this discussion as he was up there with them, and he happened to notice a few things I didn't catch during the day.. so he was doubly mad. He and I would both love it if he could come home and just greet them with no issues and no yelling or punishments... unfortunatly in our particular case, that is a rarity.

That's a great age. I have a 2 year old myself. He's really not much trouble yet. He's actually passed his terrible 2's stage, because I don't stand for that sort of stuff. He and the baby are my best behaved kids. It's the older ones I get aggravated with, they're 5 yr old twins and an 11 yr old. Trust me they are so much worse than a cute little toddler.