Ever since I had Juniper, nearly three years ago, it has been a slow progression getting to a point where I feel like I could "handle" things again. Once I hit three kids (and long before I knew all three were special needs) I found it difficult to let my kids go play outside. For one thing the kids now outnumbered the parents. We simply didn't have enough hands. For another thing its hard to watch one kid sneak behind the nearby buildings while another is running into the busy street and the third is randomly walking into our neighbors houses.
In all honesty it was a bit overwhelming for me. Plus, for a while I was going through postpartum depression that did nothing to help the situation. Then throw in back surgery for good measure. Usually I would wait until my husband got home and asked him to take the kids outside. He was better at not freaking out over whatever our kids were doing. He was more calm and collected and kept better tabs over our motley crew.
Well, today was a win for me because I let all three kids out front this morning into the communal grassy area to play. I even brought out their toddler slide and popped up a blanket and pillow in the shade for me to keep a careful I on them. My eyes still darted nervously around the common area and I still had to call for Juniper when he wondered to close to the road (my neighbor and I were totally astounded when he actually listened and came back without me having to chase him down).
We were actually out there for at least an hour or longer and I'm still mentally sane and didn't lose any children in the process. I would call that a WIN on my part. Now time for some celebratory chocolate and maybe a nap. ;-)
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