We had an annual licensing visit today. We were toying with the idea of going to an event at church tonight, so I scheduled it for the moment that B would get home from work and I would be coming in the door with the kids from getting Dinosaur from school. Everyone's there! Perfect! And she was right on time!
Perfect disaster. When we walk in the door, the kids simultaneously need seven things. And I need to set them up with something to do while we talk with the licensing worker. Plus I had forgotten that Dinosaur goes into turbo crazy mode when we have a visitor. I knew Cricket wouldn't leave my side, but I hoped the older two would chill and enjoy some time away from Cricket. Nope, drawn to the living room like a moth to a flame. I tried to speak in coherent sentences while we navigated behavioral consequences and random unsafe behavior like tapping a lightbulb with a marker because it made a cool sound. It was so chaotic that I am sort of expecting someone to follow up with us, either in a nice way, like offering support, or in a critical way, like an investigation. It did not make me feel like I was an A+ parent today. B says it wasn't really our fault and everyone knows that kids can be crazy with visitors sometimes, but I have hard time believing that we couldn't have diffused it somehow, because that's just the kind of person I am. And it's stressing me out.
From now on, 10-15 minutes buffer time for settling in. A show will be playing. Plan B and Plan C will be set up in case of failure.
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