A Temporary Lapse of Sanity

I must be insane. How could I possibly think that I would get a chance to relax for 20 minutes by asking my 16 year old and 15 year old to give the 3 year old a bath? Clearly I had a temporary lapse of sanity.

First thing they, (meaning the two teens), did was to convince the three year old to take a shower instead of a bath. There is a built in seat and the shower giver needs not even get wet and it's quicker thus they will accomplish the task sooner. Then the yelling begins...am I resting yet?? The yelling is due to the three year old not wanting the 16 year old to be the one to wash her...she wants my 15 year old to do it. My 15 year old has just gotten out of her own shower and doesn't want to get her already wet hair any wetter, I explained to her this made no sense, she won't get wet at all but only got the 'you don't understand me at all look'. Now while the shower is warming my 15 year old is arguing with G because G put an extra 'square' of toilet paper in the potty after she wiped so she could watch it go down when she flushed...(come on..it was only 1 square of toilet paper!). I tell my 15 year old that she should not argue about something so trivial..I mean it's not like she put a matchbox car in the potty to watch it flush!! So my 16 year old quickly washes G while the two teens continue to bicker back and forth in the bathroom...I am well within hearing distance and I can feel my stress level rising. There is screaming coming from the shower now as G belts out that the no tears shampoo is in her eyes...(ugh, how hard can it be with a hand held shower head and a wash cloth to keep the soap out of her eyes??? I do it every time and have shown them how at least a hundred times!! ) Stress level is about half way up the blow my stack meter...It is now 4 minutes since the shower began and I hear the water go off. My 16 year old is dictating orders that my 15 year old is ignoring. The orders must have had something to do with 'catch the preschooler and dry her off' because I now see a wet naked 3 year old running by my desk out into the family room. The 16 year old is quickly in chase muttering something about, " I told you to dry her off!!" Finally the child is corralled and dried off and pj's are on...All the while the two teens never stopped bickering.

G is now happily playing...the teens are back to what is important to them..one is eating and the other is watching tv, I think...and I do not feel rested or relaxed at all!

The moral of the story?? I don't know...I do know that this happens about once every two weeks in my household. For about two weeks I will remember how I am feeling right now and I will choose to do more things myself than to delegate things that need to be done to other family members. Then I have another lapse in sanity as I had tonight and I will think to myself, "Why don't I ask the girls to do this for me??"

But don't worry, I'm sure you will read all about it... in a post...in about two weeks...