I Have a Dream

I have a dream . . .

~ That one day I will get my children up for school in the morning, and they will greet me cheerfully and bound out of bed with smiles on their little faces.

~ That my children will actually say "please" instead of just announcing, "I'm hungry!" or "I want __________!"

~ That they will either (a) choose something practical for themselves to wear to school, or, alternatively (b) say "Excellent choice!" when I pick something for them to wear.

~ That they will thank me with sincerity for the fare I place before them.

~ That we will enjoy a solid hour without somebody wailing over some injustice, such as "He won't stop looking at me!"

~ That my kids will actually play with one toy or game at a time, putting each item away neatly before moving on to the next activity, instead of carpeting the entire house from one end to the other with every single piece of every single toy and game they own, and then refusing to clean up after themselves.

~ That they will not act as if I am committing the worst kind of torture against them by telling them to go outside and play.

~ That they will know patience and not demand that I drop whatever I'm doing because they want something RIGHT NOW.

~ That my four-and-a-half year old twins will know better than to color on the freshly painted walls downstairs with crayons (seriously!)

~ That I will be able to sit down and eat lunch without hearing "Mommy, I pooped!" from the other room, which translates to "Mommy, stop eating and come and wipe my butt RIGHT NOW!" (Never fails; it is a given that within 45 seconds of my sitting down to eat, someone needs their butt cleaned.)

~ That I will only have to tell them once, instead of 19 times and by the eighth time I'm shrieking like a banshee because I'm tired of having to tell them repeatedly.

~ That I will serve dinner, and each of my children will gaze upon their plates and say, "Mmmmmm, this looks delicious! I can't wait to dig into this!" and then later, "More vegetables, please! Yes, those green leafy ones!"

~ That bedtime will involve neither whining nor various stalling techniques.

A mom can dream, right?