I’m very busy at work at the moment. That’s to be expected in the world of accountancy at this time of year- lots of December year ends to deal with and all that jazz- but I’m finding it hard going at the weekends too at the moment. Whether it’s the pressure at work or something else, I’m finding the constant intrusions and demands from the kids very irritating. Even I as I write this, I can hear a voice hollering for me from 4 rooms away, demanding my attention. This is no different to usual of course and for the most part it’s normally water off a duck’s back- I just turn on the inbuilt filters and ignore it. Currently though, I feel excessively tired and more than a bit grumpy when the kids kick off.
And this starts at around 6am, through until 9pm.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the time the kids play happily by themselves but as soon as the phone rings or I try to talk to wifey, as if by magic a child appears to make it almost impossible to have a grown up conversation. The only time they need adult interaction is when they perceive the adult is doing something important. It’s uncanny.
It’s not just their presence during adult conversational moments that is wearing, it’s the incessant repetition. “Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit? Can I have a biscuit?” until you just wish every biscuit factory in these fair isles suffered a catastrophic failure three months ago and there was now nothing named “biscuit” available in this country. The kids have even learnt to speak on the intake of breath so there is literally no pause in the relentless barrage of repetitive demands.
Last night we finally managed to get them all gone at 8:40pm. You know what? I’d turned the lights off and was asleep by 9 o’clock as I’d just thoroughly had enough.
I thought I’d conduct an experiment today. We’re having a roast for Sunday lunch and I thought I’d see how many interruptions could happen in the 5 minutes it takes to peel the potatoes. You can see for yourself in this video (boring bits sped up X4, don’t worry, you don’t have to watch me peeling spuds in real time):
That’s not too bad- only 3 interruptions and only one leave the kitchen moment at that, in the five minutes it took to peel the spuds. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just a grumpy old man now I’ve turned 40…