Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tap-Tap-Tap... is this thing on?

I feel like my voicebox is broken, and I must only be hearing my voice in my own head.

This would explain why my kids hear me repeat the same mantras endlessly, and yet ignore me with impunity.

"Don't hit your brother!"
"Close the fridge!"
"Stop yelling!"
"No sitting on the dog!" (Yes, really.)
"Pick up the legos! Pick UP the LEGOS!"

And the list goes on and on. In between the thousand things I hope to accomplish every day (and you and I both know that, of those, I accomplish - optimistically - 4) I find myself saying the same things over and over until I am pretty sure I'm developing that vein that my Dad always got on the side of his forehead when he got mad. I can FEEL it pulsing and swelling until it threatens to explode in the Mother-Of-All-Aneurysms.

But I keep hoping, in spite of all signs to the contrary, that maybe NEXT time will be the time that sticks, and suddenly they will get it.

This is when I remember the most succinct definition of insanity that I have ever heard:
Insanity is repeating the same action over and over, with the expectation of a different result.
(See also: Slot Machines that never pay out, vending machines that won't take your dollar no matter how many times you try to straighten it out on the edge of the machine, and expecting there to be a roll of toilet paper available when you need one).

Which proves it: Parenthood makes you crazy. It's totally not my fault, y'all.

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