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I hate after school

when my kids were a little bit younger, the ‘witching hour’ or the ‘hour from hell’ happened every day around 5:00. it was the hour before daddy got home. it was the hour before dinner. it was the hour in which I was trying to FIX dinner. it was the hour I was trying to tidy up after a day of kids playing at home all day. it was the most dreaded hour of the day…

now that has changed. the hour from hell begins at about 3:45 and I’m not entirely sure when it ends… if ever.

as soon as the big kids get off the bus, they spend the whole way home arguing. I spend the whole way home yelling at them to quit arguing. micah spends the whole way home whining and dragging his feet because he was excited to see them, but they are so unpleasant, they just argue with each other instead of paying him any attention.

then we get home. they know what they are supposed to do, and yet every day I have to tell them to do it. and then they argue with me about whether or not they have to do it. and then they get mad at me for informing them that they have to do what they knew they had to do in the first place.

and then shane announces that he has to go somewhere or do something or buy something or go see someone, and I have to tell him he can’t because he has chores and homework and this, that, and the other thing he has to do… all of which, of course, are unreasonable. EVERY. DAY.

and then there’s homework. which of course, was not explained in class – it never is, you know. they just hand out stuff that has to be done that is completely, totally, and in all other ways unrelated to anything they might be learning while IN school. and the fact that they don’t know how to do it is, of course, my fault.

and then layla discovers something she thinks micah did to something of hers while she was away. and then she accuses, and he denies, and she accuses him of lying, and he gets mad and throws something at her, and she throws something at him, and they both get in trouble.

I haven’t seen my kids since this morning. I would LIKE to enjoy having them home. they are currently very difficult to enjoy.

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