No stamina

I am always running on the cusp of lateness. This week I am pushing the boundaries. I just can't get up the energy to start the day. Endless nights of broken sleep with a restless, eczema-prone toddler do not help. Neither do X-Factored-out, Nativity-played-out children who turn over and tell me to go away when I try to wake them up.

Daughter one is not a morning enthusiast and so has to be virtually dragged from her bed. She then has to be cheerleadered through breakfast in case she loses focus and drifts off into a nether world. Once she is out the door [usually around five minutes later than she should be if she wants to catch her bus], it's total chaos time. Daughter two usually disappears at some point to "straighten" her hair with some or other potion which she has concocted. Daughter three has hurt her ankle this week so lies in state with a pair of tights wrapped around it because we haven't got any bandages [or if we do they are on some doll under a bed somewhere]. The baby keeps legging it to the study to climb onto the computer chair. He has become totally obsessed with the Teletubbies, but only the Youtube version. He can actually switch on the computer and hurls himself at the chair so that he is up in Tubby position in seconds. In fact, whenever I turn by back he is on the computer chair. The thing is he doesn't just sit and watch it. Oh no. He wants to click the mouse and potentially destroy the computer. Meanwhile the cats are chasing all over the place and running up the curtains. When I try to dress the baby as soon as he is naked he runs to the other side of the room and laughs at me. The other day he also peed all over the floor. Lovely.

It is at this point that one or other daughter notices that they have a hole in their tights, a stain on their clothes, the sole is coming off their shoes, announces that they need party clothes for the afternoon or starts writing a book. So we inevitably arrive three minutes late at school. I am always late for the school run in the afternoon because people seem to email urgent messages right on the dot of 2.55. Daughter three is always the last one waiting with her teacher. The nursery has a fine system in operation and we manage to get there just in time, but it's like being in a western. I arrive in a cloud of dust and literally sprint in so as not to miss the fine deadline. Then we're back to meet daughter one. Inevitably some member of the press rings at precisely 5.30pm, just when I am hoping for some respite and in mid-dinner mode. This is the reason many of my meals are rather too well done [daughter three actually now asks for burnt cheese on toast. It has become a delicacy].

Then there is bedtime which every single child tries to prolong [particularly the baby], even though they are totally knackered. My partner thinks you just tell them to go to bed. Ha! They would never sleep if you did this. We would go up to bed and find them acting out some One Direction opus. Daughter two requires at least 10 kisses and a chat about her on/off relationship with her friends plus a read of her fairy books. Daughter three wants to talk about the next sleepover and daughter one wants to discuss the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Meanwhile, my partner is getting impatient for his dinner. 

As a journalist I should be used to deadlines, but I just feel that every day has far too many. I have taken to adding up how many more years I will have to run down the same primary school path. It is rather disheartening. I look at all the other mothers in the playground [since it is principally mothers who inhabit the playground still where I live] and I marvel at the sheer stamina that motherhood requires. I am not sure I have enough to get through the next few years, but clearly it is a bit late to come to this conclusion now.