The dullest part of being a parent is

[robinpud]

Today mine are
packing up lunches
emptying out lunchboxes
washing water bottles
reading letters from school
pegging out washing
wet swimsuits- I pretend to wash them
reasoning with stroppy kids

Yours are...

the extra cleaning

the washing

Providing three meals a day.

When you are single, you can skip a meal, snack more, cook when you fancy it etc but the dcs nearly always need a 'healthy' meal meal three times every bloody day.

It's the repetition of all that - again and again and again and feeling like you're getting no-where because it never looks like it's ever been done.

The constant rearrangement of objects. I can leave a room to make some toast, come back and the floor will be invisible. I pick it up - to have it instantly trashed. I have jhad the dustpan and brush out 4 times today - and there is still crap all over the floor.

Tinyang has got it!

Sitting here knee deep waving a white flag of surrender. Dh will come in later and make some comment about the mess...what the point. It's half term....

Today it has been:

Steering the pushchair around the park as DS pushes it for 45 mins.

Saying 'bye, bye' to every single leaf on a bush

Generally hate pairing up socks...

lovingly preparing nutritionally sound meals that get ignored by DD and lobbed overboard by DS.

Cleaning bits of rice/spaghetti/banana in a five meter radius around the table.

Stopping DD from battering DS.

Playing with them

Changing wet knickers.

Wiping snotty noses.

Actually, I'm finding it all quite dull at the moment

Never being able to watch anything decent on TV because I fall asleep as soon as I flop down on the sofa in the evening.

Sweeping the bloody kitchen floor three times a day

negotiating ... endlessly ....

gawd yes, I do steamed fish, vegetables and rice .. "I wanted egg and chips!"

And, considering I would rather have gone for egg and chips too, I do wonder why the hell I bother!

the asking 3 times to do something, the shouting 3 times to do it, then doing it myself at 10pm.

Dealing with whinging and whining
Breaking up fights about who does xyz first/last
providing food on the days I don't feel like doing it
sorting out money for school trips/non unifrom days/etc
Standing in parks (not that I do this if possible)

and
toilet training
sleep deprivation
washing
picking up trails of crap

reading the same book again and again and again. then putting it down after the fifth repeat and watching DD dissolve into tears of protest. distracting her with another book and then having her interuppt that one because she has spotted the first book badly hidden under the sofa. repeating the process again.

Being woken up while it's still dark, and being forced downstairs to watch early morning Cbeebies, only to realise it's still too early for Cbeebies..........

Listening to Row Row Row for the 45th time in the car.

Playing the same pretend game yet again. Especially when theres all the ironing and housework lurking to make me feel guilty too.

Cooking. Thinking what to cook. Cleaning up after cooking.

Mopping up spilt drinks.

Tidying up.

Breakfast time

Bedtime.

All the bits inbetween.

I'm with you there x3 Em's Mum

MrsLynetteScavo- yes yes yes I am with you there

And having to play with playdoh when I just want 20 minutes of time to think about something else unrelated to ds's miniverse. I hate playdoh.

And saying the same thing 38 times in a row as ds says "pardon?" very politely at the end as he has either not understood what I mean ("the cows have gone inside" er hello that's not hard) or just likes the fact that he can get me to say something

Playing doctors. I am totally LOVING the fact that DD2 is now old enough to be the patient and I don't have to join in any more.

I can do all sorts of wholesome activities - baking, sticking, brisk walks in the woods, blah, blah, blah - but the words "mummy, will you play doctors with me" just make me die inside