Three Year Old Triplet Tantrums and Mischief

Just quietly, can I admit to you that I am really struggling with three year old triplets right now? Look, they are gorgeous kids, and they make me smile constantly throughout the day. But just as often at the moment, they make me rub my aching head and quietly pray for divine intervention. Please Lord, make the crying and fighting stop! Because I really don’t know how to make the three year old triplet tantrums crying and fighting stop. Every.Little.Thing. They will go from giggles to hysterics in three seconds flat. It’s doing my head in.

And then if they aren’t fighting, there is mischief and mayhem.

For instance last weekend  I left the room after making a chocolate cake with the two kids. We were running behind time so I left Jayden and Toby licking the bowl and spatula while I raced down to get their clothes ready. Two minutes later Jayden has spilt sugar over the bench and put the bowl on his head so before we left I added showering a grubby boy to remove chocolate from his hair.

The next day I sent the triplets outdoors after they were fighting over lunch. Generally they play better outdoors. They were playing nicely, so I got a few things done while going out regularly to check on them. Even still, I didn’t hear Triplet 1 come in the back door. But then I heard a cry for help. He had done a poo and had tried to take his clothes and dirty pants off without taking his shoes off.  It wasn’t pretty. Ironically I had officially considered the triplets fully potty trained and had got the carpets professionally cleaned the week previously.

After disposing off the clothes to the laundry and depositing the child in the bath, I set about to find the source of the smell that seemed to be lingering. I couldn’t find it, so just decided to mop the floor where the child had been. Eventually I came to a dirty patch that seemed to be the source of the problem. However once this had been mopped there still seemed to be an odour coming from somewhere that I couldn’t locate. I kept mopping all surrounding areas, but the smell wouldn’t go away. When I went down to fetch his PJ’s, I found poo smeared all over the newly cleaned carpets. (And walls)

Thanks to Google, a concoction of 2 tablespoons of washing up detergent, 1 tablespoon of vinegar and 2 cups of warm water seemed to be effective at removing the smell and stain. (In bold in case you need to refer back to this if you face similar disasters. Because I’m helpful like that.)

It did take a fair bit of time to clean. Which made me late getting dinner ready. As I was rushing around the kitchen, suddenly Triplet 1 appears with a very wet mop. It wasn’t the same mop that I had been using. I went to investigate. He had got another mop from outdoors, and had ‘mopped’ a large area with the dirty water that I had used earlier. While doing so, he also spilled the remaining dirty water from the bucket.

Let me tell you. Upon this discovery I was not calm. I was ranting and yelling.

As I was trying to mop up the pools of water, one of the big boys came out telling on Triplet 2 “For putting toothpaste on his willy.” It was the final straw, I huffed off into the kitchen to let The Accountant know of my disapproval. He disappeared to restore order. I could tell I was frazzled and told myself to settle down. I shut myself in the pantry (I just didn’t want to see another kid right then) and tried breathing deeply to restore inner equilibrium. But because I was in the pantry, I gave up on this plan and reached up and found some chocolate, and closed my eyes while eating it and said a prayer.

Equilibrium restored.

Except while I was eating chocolate and praying in the pantry, Alex’s Chinese step sister walked into the kitchen. She is staying with us during the school holidays. We’ve only met her once before, so we’ve been getting to know her. I stood quietly in the pantry waiting for her to leave, but after peeking out at her, I realised she wasn’t going anywhere. I straightened my shoulders, lifted my chin up and walked out of the pantry, as though it were perfectly normal that I had been in there for ten minutes.

Poor Yiwen was very startled so I just mumbled something about needing a moment and thankfully she smiled and had a chuckle with me. She had been with us for almost a week and had witnessed a lot of triplet tantrums. I don’t think she will understand until she’s a mother though.

To prove I’m not exaggerating, this is the three of them crying in the car park of the local fruit shop. Triplets all crying at once wasn’t pleasant when they were newborns and it still isn’t a nice sound.

I know I’m not the only Mum who hides from their children on the odd occasion. Where’s your hiding spot when you need a moment of peace? Have you ever been ‘caught’?