Holy Cow!

No one should have to work under these conditions!!!!

Let me set the stage for you. I am a mother of 6 wonderful children ages 16 down to 1. I am also a piano teacher to a few students. At 3:45 my first student comes for his lesson. He sits down on the bench and immediately 2 of my children come running in fighting about something! I settle that and the someone is knocking at the carport door so I go and answer it and it is a customer needing change for the pop machine. As I bring in the dollar my 3 yr.old sons sees it and that reminds him that we have ice cream in the machines and he wants some and he wants it NOW! He starts to throw a HUGE tantrum and I take him to the back bedroom to let him settle down. In comes my 10 yr. old to ask if she and her friends can go down to the school playground by themselves! Hello!!! You know the answer to that! She is not happy with me. Please remember that there is this cute little piano student still waiting patiently for me to hear his song. The phone rings and it is my husband telling me that my oldest daughter shouldn't drive her car very far (and she has already left!) Back to the 30 minute piano lesson. We get through one song uninterrupted!!! Then enters my baby crying and crying so I put him down for a too late in the day nap but I am desperate. The lesson ends.

Mandy comes in with all of her friends again and says that they are bored! I give them the normal chore options but they do not go for any of those. Meanwhile lesson #2 shows up and we try to start. Anna comes in crying because she found an empty candy wrapper and that means that someone had candy and she did not get any. She will not quit yelling until I can offer her something else just as good! What is that I hear? another knock on the door from another customer! The phone rings at the same time and I quickly hang up. I forgot to mention that the whole time I have four 10 year old girls running through the house screaming and playing chase all the while leaving all of the doors open so that my Jakey has perfect access to the front yard not to mention the street! Oh yea I am supposed to be teaching piano!!! No such luck! The girls come in a second time whining that there is still nothing to do and they want to make lemonade and sell it! I said, "You have to be kidding me!" They got the hint. Then I hear Mandy offering everyone some Orange Juice so I intercept that conversation and offer them the opportunity to bake cookies and drink WATER!!!! Meanwhile I have listened to a couple of songs and also broke up a fight with the friends and Anna. Phone rings again and it is someone asking me for an opinion and I hung up again!!!!

Student #3! Now it is the Crandall sisters against Mandy and her friends. All they do is fight and yell and everyone is hungry! Jospeh has been awakened by all of the noise and he is not happy! I get two more phone calls! Now I hear loud crying and screaming so I have to go and see what in the world???? Anna again. I try to put Joseph down but he will have none of that. My student is very patient and wait until I am at least in the room before he plays his songs. Then we look out the window and we see Jakey waving to passing cars from the front yard. I have had it. I just bow my head and I say I give up! I do get to listen to the rest of the songs and make new assignments just in time for another fight to start. I say good-bye to my student and then go outside and as soon I step outside all of the kids run up and say, "Are you done teaching?" I just laugh and say "Yes!" Then of course they want me to take them to the park and get them something to eat and they all want to complain about someone else. I just go back inside and shut the door and type this post!

Needless to say there are going to be some changes in my home before next week. First of all the phones will be off the hook and a sign on the door to customers saying please do not disturb. Most importantly all of the kids will have assignments to do while I am teaching. I cannot have another day like this and keep any kind of sanity. It is not fair to my students. I do apologize to those 3 brave souls today. Thanks for putting up with the craziness!!!