Multitasking is practically a prerequisite of being a parent. When you have three children yelling different things at you, you need to be able to remember which child wants chocolate soy milk mixed with white milk in a red cup, purple juice in a princess cup, and lemonade with ice cubes in a blue cup. And when your son complains that he didn't want a princess cup, you say, "Look, princesses are great. DEAL WITH IT."
I have never done so much multitasking since I've been a parent. As a new parent with my first child I just lay around all day with my son on my lap, and I would call out to my husband for a glass of water. When you have your second child, you just can't do that. With your third, you can vacuum with one hand while the baby is in the front carrier while changing a poopy diaper of your older child with the other hand and watching TV.
Once I was grocery shopping, and I had my daughter sitting in the front of the cart. I was reading her book to her upside down while pushing the cart along and grabbing items and trying to keep my older child occupied so he wouldn't start knocking fruit on to the floor.
Of course there have been other times that haven't gone so well. Like that one time I was doing several loads of laundry as well as washing a poopy sleeper in the laundry tub. I put the sleeper in the tub, put in the plug, turned on the taps full blast, and then walked away. I just walked away. I went upstairs, and I think I started folding laundry. Nothing was happening in my brain at all, to tell me that I had just done something really stupid. There was no little nagging voice. Perhaps it was asleep. Anyway, later on, my older son suddenly starts yelling that water is pouring down the hallway. Still no voice. I ran downstairs, actually wondering where on earth the water was coming from. It wasn't until I saw the overflowing laundry tub with the sleeper floating on top that something clicked. It was really fun to clean up all that water, let me tell you.
Possibly it wasn't as fun as the time I locked the keys in the car with the engine running, and didn't realize it until after I'd played with my son at the play farm. I was taking him back to the car, and as I approached I thought, "Hmmm....the van seems to be....but no, it can't be running. I mean...surely I would have noticed that?" Apparently not. I had to go inside and call the CAA, and of course I'd locked my CAA card inside the van as well. I mean, that would have been too easy, wouldn't it? While I was waiting another mother told me her story. She said she had locked all the car doors, and then just threw her car keys onto the seat and slammed the door. "I just threw them right in! I didn't even think," she laughed.
I think we're all multitasking so much that we've lost our minds! Or possibly it's the sleep deprivation.
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