Beyond multi-tasking

I am a multi-tasker. I have come to realize that if I was not a multi-tasker that I would be doing things tomorrow that should have been done today.

I have been one of these since having kids. (When you have four kids in four years and three months, it forces you into this mode.)

If I hadn't become a multi-tasker, at least one of my kids would have starved while I was helping another find his/her creative side or skill to do puzzles or the love of reading. It was my job to keep them all confined in the same area where I could see what everyone was doing.

This is what caused my kids to be the picky eaters they are today in their late teens and 20s - I fed them what I knew they would eat and not fuss while I was taking care of another baby. (I have warned them all to not allow that to happen to their kids.)

There are times that they managed to get out of my sight - and used their creativity.

Jordan once slipped into the bathroom alone with a pen. I was quite surprised when I went in there and found all sorts of drawings on the wall paper. "They're maps," he told us.

Another time while I was tending to baby Austin, the other three - 2-4 years - packed up most of their clothes into plastic grocery bags along with milk from the refrigerator and the "magic milk" (powdered Nestle's Quick) and set everything by the door. This had to have been done in a short time span but when I saw all the bags I questioned them what they were doing. They told me they were running away. Again, I became a multi-tasker - I was serving as a mediator and a video-ographer. I talked to them for at least 30 minutes trying to get to the bottom of what was going on. They were very serious and I played along. Apparently they were fed up with our rules (which were few) and they were moving somewhere where they didn't have to follow rules. Jordan vowed to take care of his two sisters by getting a job and asked if they could take one of our vehicles. A 4-year-old driving? When I said no to that request, he asked dad, who had missed most of the conversation, came in from work and was immediately drawn into the conversation when Jordan asked him to buy a car for them.

When we told them we would miss them very much, they told us they would write to us - a skill none of them had even mastered at the time.

Mediation won over and to this day I do not know how they emptied all their drawers without me hearing them.

I am glad they didn't go through with it.