The Power of Three

When Snoodie was around 6-months-old my brother called to find out how everything was going.


I told him that there were good days and bad days.

My brother (a father of four) laughed before telling me,


"You should have another one. Then you can have good days and bad days on the same day."


Now that I have three kids I gotta say - the guy was onto something.


When you have one child there are plenty of things that can go wrong. Any given outing can be marred by a lost toy, felled by a diaper mishap or derailed by an ill-timed meltdown. But when you have three kids (I have realized too late in my child-producing journey) you've TRIPLED your chances of any given day going spectacularly off the rails.

Just yesterday I was having a wonderful day with my two boys. In what can only be described "The Great Mid-May Miracle", the two of them played together for close to an hour (an HOUR people!) before I had to reprimand them for beating each other about the face and neck over a disputed toy.


Later, they ate their entire dinner with nary a complaint before enjoying some leftover birthday cake. They even said thank you before marching off to the bath without incident.


It was pretty much the best day ever.

Except for the fact that my possibly teething or alternately just irrationally furious 3.7 months old spend the entire afternoon and evening in an unrelenting rage spiral.


A good day and a bad day indeed.

My father always cites the old adage that a parent can only be as happy as their least happy child. I always assumed this was said in reference to parents of grown children but I've come to realize that it is just as true for toddlers. I've accepted the fact that my day is only going to go as well as the worst day one of my children is having.


Now, I just spend my time hoping that all three of them don't have bad days on the same day.