Children Are Inconvenient

I know that sounds so mean, but its true. Just yesterday I was driving my girls home from school and complaining in my head about how much work children are. I hate, absolutely hate, helping with homework. My mom used to tell me that she did her "time", and I would get this mental picture of her behind bars. Child rearing is not convenient to my lifestyle at all. My car could be clean and it wouldn't be a dreaded mini van. I could buy things for myself and not feel the least bit guilty about the things I didn't buy them. I could feel like my toothbrush was safe and the sink would not have clumps of unused toothpaste in it. What about feeling like maybe once the diapers are gone, you've taught them how to do dishes, cook and clean and do their own laundry, that maybe, just maybe it will be smooth sailing. Oh no, teenagers are even more work. You have to outsmart them. I've been finding myself pulling out my entire arsenal, you know the big guns, with my two oldest. Granted they haven't even skimmed the surface of what my husband and I did at their ages, but you sure need to be able to put yourself in the place of the truant and the guard. This is the age for choosing your battles, otherwise I go around like a private eye waiting to find them in some indiscretion. Certainly not convenient at all, but God says that if I raise them right, they will turn out okay. Man, gotta put your trust in that.