Daily life with children is my new normal - To the me of the past who thought I didn't need kids

The children have returned from their sleepover.

They were tanned dark and looked exhausted, but when I called out, 'Welcome home!', they hugged me and said, 'We're home!'

Yeah, they're cute ^ ^

They worked hard, didn't they? I was filled with the feeling of, 'You really did a great job in this heat,' so we stopped by Baskin Robbins on the way home. I'm being a bit of a different mom today, letting them get a double scoop instead of their usual small single.

When I got home feeling all warm and fuzzy, I was prepared for it, but the amount of laundry was huge!

I thought, 'Alright! It's going to be a heatwave tomorrow too, so it'll dry!' and for once, I was actually grateful for the extreme heat.

The warm and fuzzy feeling vanished the moment I saw the laundry piled up, and then, finding a mask still in a pocket, I instantly went 'Argh!' and reverted back to my usual self.

That warm and fuzzy feeling seems like it was a long time ago.

And here is what I noticed compared to the day before:
✅ It's lively (or you could say my angry voice is noisy)
✅ The dining table feels small
✅ The TV screen is showing Minecraft
✅ Whispering from the kids' room (I hope they aren't bad-mouthing Mom!)
✅ A mountain of laundry (I did 4 loads yesterday)
✅ I can hear piano music (mostly game music)

The day before was nice in its own way (I was able to simulate my retirement), but I realized once again that 'life with children' has become my new normal. If the me of the past, who once thought 'I don't need children' (or even 'I don't want to get married'), could see me now, she would be so surprised.

In the evening, I was surprised to see my second daughter suddenly doing her kanji workbook. When I joked, 'Are you dazed from exhaustion? Is it going to rain tomorrow?', she got mad at me.

Mom is in the wrong. Sorry about that.

A little while later, she casually said, 'I finished my kanji, so I'm going to play games for just one hour!', and I, being a pushover, just casually replied, 'Sure thing'.

It seems the kids are much smarter than me.

Thank you for reading this far ^ ^