Long day with the kids and reaching the limits of your patience levels? You definitely aren’t alone… 

Wasted Dinners

You spend hours in the kitchen knocking up the perfect, balanced meal for your brood, before proudly placing it in front of the little darlings and waiting for their delight. But within seconds, their faces screw up and the meal is flatly rejected / spat onto the floor / thrown across the room. It’s enough to test the calmest parent – and we fail every time.

Bedtime Escapees 

The day is over and the kids are finally tucked up in bed. You breathe a sigh of relief, flop onto the sofa, and take a sip of something refreshing. But just as you start to relax, you hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet and are joined by a small person on the sofa. And so begins a nightly relay race back to the bedroom, which carries the very real danger of driving you to the point of a toddler melt-down yourself. 

Toilet Tantrums

“Do you need to go to the toilet before we leave?” you ask the kids, before summoning up the energy to herd them out the door. “NO!” they chant back in unison. And they mean it – until two minutes into the journey, of course, when they decide they are bursting to visit the facilities (which are now inconveniently located half a mile down the road).  

Early Risers

It’s the weekend, but all parents know that certainly doesn’t guarantee a lie in… After all, you can put the kids to bed at 7pm or you can put them to bed at midnight – and either way, they’ll be jumping on your pillow before the sun has risen.  

Missing Puzzle Pieces

You get down onto the floor to put together a jigsaw puzzletogether – and after some serious brain power, you and the kids are about to complete it. But when you go to find the very last pieces, they are nowhere to be seen – and the absence of those two tiny pieces of cardboard means you might as well throw the whole thing in the bin.

Fun with Baby Wipes

When a giant mess demands nearly a whole packet of baby wipes, you can guarantee that they’ll come out frustratingly slowly, one-by-one. And when you only need the one wipe? You’ll pull out a clump of 20 and find it impossible to pick them apart. Infuriating. 

Unwanted Advice

Nobody minds a little friendly advice when you are struggling with motherhood (and it happens to the best of us) – but when that advice comes from a stranger at the worst possible time (such as when you are dealing with a public tantrum and want the ground to swallow you up), it can be impossible to bite your tongue and stay calm. In fact, it can make you want to throw yourself to the floor and scream in solidarity with the toddler. 

Rejected Toys

Your child is gripped by a toy at a play date and a light bulb switches on in your mind, “I’ll buy that for their birthday,” you decide. “They’ll be delighted and I’ll spend my afternoons with my feet up, whilst the little darling plays at my feet!” Then their birthday comes and they unwrap the promised gift – but within minutes, it’s cast aside and never looked at again. It’s almost inevitable.

Food Detectives

They’ll discover the tiniest piece of broccoli in their dinner – but ask your child to find their shoes before you leave the house and they will look at you blankly. “I don’t know where they are!” they will whine. “You find them, Mummy!” You’ll find them in seconds, of course, as they were right under their nose. 

Lost Property 

You spend hours queuing at the school uniform shop in the summer months, risking temperatures of nearly 50’C and blowing the whole month’s budget in one fell swoop. And a few weeks later? Your child comes home with one sock, somebody else’s lunch box, and a missing tie. It’s practically guaranteed. 

Read more:

The Truths About Being A British Mum in Dubai

Which Expat Tribe Are You?

10 Signs You’re a British Mum in Arabian Ranches

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