Kids for sale

I could easily give in and throw reading time out the window, let them stay outside till after 8pm, let them have TV until 9 and get them to bed sometime around 9:30, after finally getting them into their jammies. I could let them bathe only once a week and never brush their teeth.

And you know what? During tuck-ins they would still:

1. ask to watch more TV
2. ask to brush their teeth
3. ask for a story
   
4. ask for yoga
5. ask for a snack

So I try to get them home by 7:30 and ready for bed by 8 so we can read a story. I try and fail and hate myself because I failed yet again. They fight and babble and do everything they can to ruin relaxation time or make me mad so that I want to crawl into my dungeon and never come out. But they would destroy each other and come down here and tell me how much they want a story, even tho they refused 30 minutes earlier.

So tomorrow they will be home by 7. No later. They will have a snack and brush their teeth and have the jammies on by eight o'clock. Bruce will have to be laid down at that time so I can read to the kids. And I will read Austin's new book to him if he can be nice, but Tessa gets a book too. This isn't just about him. He isn't the only reason we started this although at first he benefited the most. Now he fights it the most and refuses the most and tries to run this house. I understand that dad is gone right now, but he is just going to have to deal with it. I'm the man now, not him.