For the past week, I've had the privilege of having my amazing kids for spring break. The time I get to spend with them is not a lot, but during the year, I try to make the moments count. Working while they are here can prove to be problematic, because I work an overnight shift and sleep during the morning and early afternoon. The good thing is, my son Merlin, Jr. is almost 15 and he keeps the ship upright while I'm sleeping.
Sometimes, the world just isn't right though. While they have been here, I've worked 4 days and 3 of those days have called for 3 to 4 hours of overtime, which cuts into the sleep hours and when you are trying to spend as much time with your kids, it's very hard to budget time on no sleep or too much sleep. Earlier this week, I got home from work at 1pm and made the kids lunch. I set my alarm for 6pm so I could get up and get their dinner done, but it seems that once the alarm had gone off, I either turned the alarm off or threw the phone across the room in disgust at the lack of sleep...I'm not sure. I finally wake up in a hurry and realize that the sun is no longer stabbing me through the curtain, which means that I had overslept, a lot.
I bust out of the room to see if my apartment is destroyed or to see if my kids are huddled in a corner dying from starvation. Neither was the case and when I questioned my son about their dinner, he simply said, "It's alright, we've been eating crackers." Mind you, they ate an entire box of Saltines. I was disgusted at myself for a moment, but I excused my lack of parenting to the fact that in the previous 3 days, I've only had 6 hours of sleep. I felt that my sleep and parenting was justified or at least that is what I told myself to make myself not feel so bad.
Later in the week, I had time to take my kids to a park to play some pitch and catch; a lake to do some fishing; and we've watched Brother Bear about 40 times. I sometimes feel bad that I can't afford to take them to see and experience everything that the big city has to offer, but the kids seem content on just spending time out of school.
My son, who is so sucked into his phone, would probably forget to eat or drink unless I reminded him...or he found a box of Saltines; that just happened to be sitting beside a loaf of bread and all the things needed to make a delicious sandwich. I get frustrated because of his lack of desire to do anything but sit on his phone, but I have to remember that there is only so much I can take away from him without him hating to come see me.
My daughter Bry and my youngest son Rabbit have seemed to have bonded pretty good. She plays and talks to him and he is always trying to sit with her. Which is really neat to watch their interaction from across the room. However, she is the culprit that watches the same movies over and over again. The most difficult thing for me to decide is do I pull them away from what they really like to do in exchange for forcing them to do things that we can all do together and doesn't involve any electronics.
Rabbit, who I get on Saturdays, is not interested in TV at all. He's the kid that if you turn your back, he will find his way into a cleaning closet. He's probably the easiest of my kids to entertain, but getting them in the same room is like pulling teeth! I have yet to find one thing that all of us can enjoy at the same time. If we were to go to a park with all three kids, Rabbit and Bry would have a blast while Merlin Jr.'s nerves would be shot trying to keep them at a safe distance so they don't get hurt. His over-protective nature is nice to some degree, but I wish he would just be a kid and enjoy breaking the monotony.
Either way, I'm enjoying the time with them. However, I hope the day comes when the only thing that they really want to do when they come to visit is fish.
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