Thursday, June 23, 2011

Raising Children and Self-Imposed Stress

Raising children is very difficult. I find myself thinking, more and more, that I am not very good at it. This week has been particularly stressful, and not so much because of my children, but because of the pressure I have been putting on myself. Need to just turn it all over to God.
First, Luke was asked to go out of town, unexpectedly, which turned a 4 day trip into an 8-day trip. Then, while Luke was out of town, his brother and wife came into town to visit. This was a planned visit; we knew they were coming, and they are actually staying with Luke's mom. But I freaked out over have the house "clean enough" to meet their cleanliness standards (which, I'll just say, are higher than my own). I stayed up until 4 am the night before they arrived, cleaning, and then attempting to sleep. (The cup of coffee I drank at 9pm kicked in and I stared at the clock from 2am on...begging for sleep but...not sleeping.) Consequently, I was exhausted for the next few days, and was trying to manage the kids...who are out of school on summer break...on my own.
And my kids are good, but occassionally hyper. Actually, they are almost always hyper. Or maybe wild at heart? They are easily excited. They wear me out. And I wonder, do all kids act like this? Are other parents questioning their parenting skills?