Lent. A time when one gives up something they enjoy. A sacrifice, though small to this world, to remind us of the sacrifice Jesus faced in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights. However, when faced with reality me giving up chocolate or wine is just a burden on those around me. I am evil. A screaming banshee. My family would like to sacrifice me just to stop me flying off the handle at the slightest misdemeanour – just looking at me wrong can set me off. And then the guilt. I spend my life feeling guilty. I feel guilty I didn’t go to Mass today because my son has flu. I sent the others with Granny just to get them out the house. (And I’m writing in the hope that our priest is cool enough to read social media and realise I was being a caring mother and not a bad Catholic – oh the guilt!)

So lent, which, even if you’re not a practising Christian, has become a universal period of time like Dry January (or Movember or Stoptober or the whole of Autumn leading up to Christmas) when people think about being a better person by either giving up something enjoyable or taking something on that perhaps takes you out of your comfort zone. I have yet to decide what I’m going to take on because clearly anything else has adverse effects on my family, except giving up all this sickness in the house – it’s HALF TERM and I’m going stir crazy because it’s too quiet in the house; they’re all too sick to argue and run around beating each other with light sabers. I miss my crazy loons who are knee-dropping on each other’s backs one minute and playing Monopoly the next. Grrrr. Even the cats are bored. Ergh – one just brought in a slug; so disgusting, I think I prefer the child throwing up mid-hallucination. I won’t ever be taking on nursing. That requires a special type of person who has patience and kindness, two skills I work on every day…when the kids are asleep.

So Dear Lord, Please send me wine and chocolate so that I may love with patience and kindness (but only Dairy Milk or Crème Eggs because the rest aren’t really chocolate) and I will try to be a nice Mum. Amen.

That’s the doorbell – wow! Now I remember why I go to church…

If your children are happy and healthy and are looking for a new challenge take a look at our Activities and Clubs pages: https://www.mumsguideto.co.uk/harpenden/activities.php

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