Managing the Unmanagable

"The chaos of life", at least for me, refers partially to the uncanny ability of my children to wreak incredible havoc within relatively short periods of unsupervision, and my often fruitless attempts to prevent this phenomenon. I suspect any seasoned parent would agree that as startling as it is to hear the sounds of children wrestling or the contents of a well-organised drawer tumbling onto the floor, the real danger lies in those moments of apparent peace. The times when children are both silent and somewhere outside of the immediate vicinity. And especially if I'm trying to have a shower.


My initial suspicion during these times is that the toilet roll is now an unravelled heap sitting on the tiled floor, or that Chloë has concealed herself in the pantry with the container of chocolate chips I use for baking. But sometimes that's just me being a bit too optimistic.


I had one day recently when Zayla decided to open the fireplace and use the ash to create black masterpieces on various nearby surfaces. Perhaps it was my naivety that prompted me to send her away to play while I cleaned up, thinking it would prevent the further spread of ash. She did go away, and all was quiet during the clean-up. Too quiet. Upon investigation of the suspicious tranquillity, I discovered that my girls had combined their mess-making powers to achieve an even greater state of disarray.

I was a little bit impressed that they had managed to pull books from all but the highest shelf, it suggests to me some first-class climbing skills. But I can't say that was my dominant reaction at the time. I did, however, have the foresight to photograph this moment so as to leave their father in no doubt as to the extent of their guiltiness once he came home to a (hopefully) restored house.


But the story doesn't end there. Thinking that my children were somewhat repentant, and having still not finished with the ash, I returned the site of the initial crime to finish cleaning. But again - a prolonged and uncharacteristic silence descended upon the house. Yet this time the girls weren't in their usual lurking places - they were in my room.

I literally caught Chloë red-handed and Zayla red-faced. I also discovered after this experience that my lipstick is indeed wear- and waterproof, especially since Zayla's hair had a bit of a red tinge to it for the next few days.


Fortunately this concluded the day's shenanigans, partially thanks to the pseudo-babysitting abilities of the children's channel on the TV. But as I've discovered in the world of child-initiated disaster zones, tomorrow is always another day!


Isn't motherhood wonderful? Lucky I love them so much.