Can you hear me now??

Sometimes I cringe at the sound of my own voice....I mean it, I really can't stand hearing the words that I speak again and again.

"It's time to brush your teeth and wash your face"
"Finish eating so we can get ready for school"
"Turn off the tv and get your shoes on"
"Get in the car and put your seatbelt on"
"Walk faster or you're going to be late"
"Stop dragging your backpack on the ground"
"Stop squeezing the dog"
"I said, pick the toys up off the floor!"
"If I have to tell you ONE MORE TIME"

As each word flows from my mouth I am reminded of all the times I swore that I would never nag my kids and I would never repeat myself. Oh no, I was going to be the mother whose children listened the first time she said ANYTHING!

So what happened? Why is it that my children don't seem to hear my instructions? Why do I need to raise the volume to "yell" before I see results? Is it just me? Do other mothers find themselves rambling and repeating the same things every day? I wonder if it's a reflection of me as a person or of my mothering skills that my children are incapable of obeying my instructions.

Of course the truth is that many mothers have similar struggles, we just seem to be isolated in our moments of true craziness, because we are alone in our hallway trying to move our children mowards a timely exit. But, more than likely at that very instant there are hundreds of thousands of mothers in other locations hollering to their sleeping children that they "better get out of bed right now if they want breakfast", and probably just down the street a mother is reminding her child to put a clean shirt on and warning him to change his dirty socks before his feet stink permanently.

Just this afternoon, I heard a mother on the playground hollering out for her young son to stop playing and start walking with her to the car. I had to check myself for a minute because I could have sworn that the voice was my own. Although that same scenario plays out almost on a daily basis in that very playground, this time it really was another mother whose child shares the same name as my son.

I guess I'm not the only one after all....