Life Suckers

Do you ever find yourself arguing with your kids about the same issues over and over and over again??

Do you ever feel like you have to constantly nag them to pick up after themselves?

Do they ever nag you so much it feels like they are sucking the life out of you?? 

I answer “yes” to all these questions and I know I can’t be the only mom who feels this way!!

I love my kids to infinity and beyond!!!

I could not imagine my life without them.

Every day I am fully aware that there are millions of couples in the world who struggle with infertility and can not have children.

I am lucky and thankful to be a mom.

Having said that, they are life suckers.

It might not be the most proper name used to refer to your children, but it is perfect for mine.

They don’t do it on purpose. Life suckers don’t mean to be life suckers. It just comes naturally for them. 

I have three of them and they all suck the life out of me in different ways.

For this post, we’ll just focus on my daughter.

Of course, I think she is amazing!!

I love her more than life itself, but she one of the biggest slobs you will ever meet. She destroys every room she walks in. She leaves a trail of destruction in every room she enters. She is a walking tornado.

Usually, it’s because she is making slime or conducting an “experiment”. Most of the time, I can tell where she’s been by the trail of flour or cornstarch left behind.

Typically, her room is a complete disaster you can not even walk through. 

Thankfully, she knows the tooth fairy is make believe. She would have been really disappointed the other day, if she put her tooth under the pillow expecting something from the tooth fairy. I am certain the tooth fairy would have left her a sad note about how she couldn’t retrieve her tooth because she couldn’t find a clear path to the bed.

A better mom would make her keep it clean, but I am a bad mom. I don’t really care about her room. I just look the other way and close the door.

There’s shit everywhere.

It’s pretty atrocious.

I would probably care about her room being clean if it was in better condition, but many years ago her younger brother (who was around 2) dumped a large amount of nail polish on the carpet. Since then, she has written on the walls and added a few slime experiments to the carpet. 

Even when it is clean, it still looks like shit.

The struggle is real.

When I am on the verge of a mental meltdown, I like to grab her hand. I usually hold it and ask her, “can you feel it?”

The first time I asked the question she looked at me with an inquisitive look and said “feel what?”  

I replied “feel the life sucking out of me?”

We laughed.

Hysterically.

Now, I don’t even need to say anything to her anymore. I can just look at her a certain way and grab her hand and she knows she has been a little life sucker. 

She profusely apologizes every time and promises to do better. Typically, her “doing better” is a 9 day wonder.

Once the novelty of picking up after herself has worn off and things are everywhere, we’ll hold hands again.

We’ll laugh and she’ll clean shit up.

I know she isn’t perfect and this is her only big flaw. When she is grown up and living by herself, it won’t matter that she had a messy room and was a walking tornado. 

My hand holding sessions with her may not be conventional parenting. I am pretty sure my mom would have yelled at me until everything was picked up, but I think it’s way better to hold hands and laugh then yell at her and make her cry. 

I know that one day all 3 of my life suckers will be gone and I will miss the days I got the life sucked out of me.

What’s your strategy for dealing with your little life suckers??