Playing Mom

This weekend my parents were out of town for youth conference, which means I've been "Mom" for the past few days. It's been quite the experience. Granted, the kids I was watching are my siblings and they're 9 and 13, so they can mostly take care of themselves but there was still plenty to do. It's been a rather eye-opening weekend.

What I've learned this weekend from playing Mom:
-I am definitely not ready to be a parent. But I kind of already knew that. 
-I can still do a functional ballerina bun after 10 years of no practice. Small victories.
-Little girls can be surprisingly good shopping partners.
-Kids like to be listened to. They like their opinions to be validated and acknowledged, and just because they're younger doesn't make them any less important.
-Patience is a virtue that I am rather short on. If anyone's got any extra, I'm definitely in the market.
-It takes .5 minutes for a room to get messy again right after it's been cleaned.
-For some reason my siblings think that the table is a perfectly acceptable place for their socks.
-It takes at least five times of saying "Turn the TV off!" before it's actually acknowledged, and another five times (or more) before it's obeyed.
-Only offer bribes that you're prepared to follow through on. These kids will hold you to every single one.
-Apparently standing in a 20 minute Little Caesar's line for one stinking cheese pizza still doesn't count as cooking, even though it's just as much of a hassle.
-Bedtime is more like guidelines. However......
-Children who don't get enough sleep are very cranky children indeed.
-Allowing a 13 year old to make cookies by himself will result in a huge mess, but the cookies turned out wonderfully.  
-Moms are incredible. I do not know how they do it.

Thanks to Nate and Grace for a great weekend! Hopefully I was a decent substitute Mom, because I know I could never replace the real thing. 

Love, Brontë