It's 4am and the puppy just woke up. She's crying and I know that a) she needs a wee and b) if I don't go soon not only will I have extra laundry, but she will have woken up the kids.
That's fine. Parenting is about getting up in the night. The problem is I also know I won't make it back to bed. Because once she's done her business, she won't go back in her crate without protest. And by protest I mean yelping, crying and rattling at the gate until it sounds like armageddon.
We're on dog two. We know the rules. Ignore them when they cry and they stop. And we did. A bit. She goes in her crate at bedtime without crying now. But the mornings are different.
Firstly, I'm not so great at 4am. I go from calm to banshee really quickly. When I threatened (in hyperbole I hasten to add) to drown or sell her, I knew it wasn't working. That whine, man, it's like a chainsaw to the nerves pre-dawn.
Secondly, I'm not the only one who becomes vile on too little sleep. A couple of weeks ago I left the puppy crying and took off to the outside room, where I couldn't hear her. I slept beautifully for a couple more hours, but awoke to carnage. The whole house was up, poo everywhere, tempers frayed. It took days for husband and kids to recover.
It was the same when my youngest child was born. My eldest was a light sleeper then, and only 19 months old, so whenever the baby cried he was instantly hushed. I spent the next five years dealing with the consequences. Even now I wonder if I caused his separation anxiety by trying to protect the family's sleep/sanity.
And there's the rub. At 4am, when I'm taking one for the team, I'm also telling myself what a terrible parent/dog owner I am. Creating a needy, spoilt puppy whilst also creating a grumpy exhausted me.
My only salvation is something a therapist said to me once. I wasn't there for parenting advice, but it was the only good thing about the whole experience, since they did more harm than good for the thing I was there for. Anyway, the advice was 'Dependence before Independence'. A child has to learn to trust you before they can leave you. A child has to know you'll be there no matter what.
That phrase has been our parenting mantra. For every 3am cuddle, for every event left early or extra five minutes spent saying goodbye. It helped me too, because nothing triggers my anxiety like having a screaming child dragged from my arms, no matter how well-intentioned. I've had stern words with teachers and left childcare institutions that insisted my child was crying 'crocodile tears'. I believed in my mantra.
And it's worked, with the kids. My timid frightened children are now pulling away, finding their wings, choosing to forge their own path, without being shoved. They go on camp and sleepovers and run happily into school without a backward glance. And my sanity has remained intact.
Time will tell if it holds true for puppies.
As I was sitting in the coffee shop yesterday, knitting (which is the new writing, don't you know), I couldn't help but overhear two concerned mums talking about their children's schooling. It was a long conversation, and a private one, but the gist was very much balancing the achievement of potential with happiness.
By the time I got home, I had a splitting headache that left me zoned out for the rest of the day. It was only this morning that I realised why – the conversation triggered my anxiety. Because it is the crux of everything, isn't it?
We spend our lives balancing survival with living. Making a wage with enjoying our money. Trading wishes for shoulds and back again. Behind it all is this constant message that we have to be the best person we can be. The richest, thinnest, most successful, happiest, living in the most tasteful house, watching the right movies, reading the edifying books, eating healthy nutritional sugar-free meals.
No one can live with the pressure of that.
It certainly drives me loopy. I know I'm a talented artist, a creative knitter, a reasonable writer. I know I was a good Marketing Manager, clever with numbers, a quick grasp of strategy, calm in a crisis. But I excel at none of those things: none of them are a driving passion that make me want to be the best at them. I flit from one to the other like a distracted five-year-old. And the guilt of not fulfilling my potential in any of those areas, never mind all of them, leaves me exhausted and incapable of achieving anything.
If I paint a nice picture, the advice is that it should become my future: selling cards on Etsy, perhaps, or painting commissions. Except if I paint when it isn't for someone I care about, it's no fun. And there's no money in it. Ditto knitting. Ditto anything that isn't to make someone happy, or to receive praise (we won't go into how wrong that is as a motivation).
No one could tell me what that 'potential' was, though, or what it was for. Only that I had to fulfil it.
And now I clean poop for a living. I muck out the guinea pigs and the hamster, pick up after the dog, wipe the kids' bums. I cook and clean. Iron. Moan and whinge about it. Not exactly fulfilling the potential of all those qualifications. But it's the guilt and frustration of that, rather than the chores themselves, that makes me unhappy. I love my guinea pigs, hamster, dog, kids, husband. I love my messy house and free life. And I'm not sure I know what 'more' looks like.
I follow Matt Haig on Twitter and Facebook. If you haven't come across him, he is a best-selling author who is honest about his struggle with anxiety. At New Year he tweeted a succession of messages that have stuck with me (see the image above). I love this one particularly (and the Russian Doll one).
Of course, this post is the exact opposite of my last one, which ended with a desire for motivation, for 'smashing every expectation'. Life is a dichotomy. It's precisely that contradiction, both for me and the choices I make for my children, that gave me a twenty-four hour stress headache. To ensure we don't coast through life without a sense of achievement, but are not pushed to achieve beyond the point of happiness. To make sure the children don't struggle at school, but to know that exam results aren't all that important in the grand opera of life. To know that I can run to feel better inside but I don't have to have the discipline of Jessica Ennis-Hill. To know that I want to be a best-selling author, but I perhaps don't have the drive or emotional fortitude to get rejected thirty times.
Sanity lies in finding the balance between motivation and the endless drive for perfection. Between fulfilling your potential for you, and doing what the world expects of you.
I don't really want to write this, after my positivity a week ago, but arrgghh. That's all I can say. As I approach my monthly cycle the drugs are no longer controlling my mood swings. I'm irritable and sad and low. The kids are grating on me as if my skin has been scraped off by a potato peeler.
And, without wanting to give too much information, the sweating. Yuk. It's still spring and it's awful, what will it be like in summer? I have mini anxiety attacks and palpitations. And did I mention the floaters? Imagine having several black flies constantly moving across your line of sight. I want to claw my eyes out. All in all I feel trapped in myself and trapped by the meds, knowing I'm on them for six months. Jittery, lethargic and snappish is not an improvement on exhaustion and rage. I'm as unhappy in my body now as I was in my mind before, and the attraction of ending the misery is almost as compelling.
I'm booked in to see the doctor next week. This no longer feels like I've been thrown a lifeline. More that I've been dragged into a different but equally cold and choppy ocean. I'm just as close to drowning, I just seem to care less. Sigh. I suppose nothing worthwhile is ever easy and life is just hard. I must not give in to those thoughts though as they fuel my belief that there's not much to live for. Time to just keep swimming.
Attempting to plait my daughter's hair this morning was the proverbial last straw. Her hair was shiny from washing and she has a double crown. It's had me swearing most days since she started school as she's never worn her hair tied back before and I'm rubbish at plaiting someone else's hair (especially a wriggly child).
Today I lost it. Full on panic attack, sobbing, hysterics the works. Bless my amazing family: hubbie did the plait, son gave pats and leg cuddles and daughter said repeatedly, "It's okay Mummy." However much I worry about the impact my hormonal instability has on my children, there's no doubt it's taught them empathy.
It's also taught them blindness to difference, in a way. Mummy's behaviour is normal to them, so if they encounter anyone having an episode, be it panic attack, asthma attack or emotional breakdown, they're likely to remain calm. That counts for something, right?
Given that they're likely to inherit an element of serotonin imbalance from their parents, hopefully they've also learned to give themselves a break: to let it pass and get on with their day as I had to do, with hubbie off to an interview, two kids to drop off and pick up from different places and a birthday party to prepare for.
Self awareness is a blessing and a curse and I'm not entirely sure my kids will thank me for introducing them to it early. But there's no doubt it's easier dealing with a toddler tantrum when it comes with "Mummy, I'm sad because…" rather than just screaming rage.
Claire opened her eyes and looked at Bethan, before closing them tight again.
Around them, the aircraft vibrated as it climbed into the clouds. The man behind Claire kept checking an altimeter in his hand and providing a running commentary.
Claire wished he would stop.
"Remind me why I let you talk me into this?" She yelled above the noise of the engines.
"So you could impress your new boss." Bethan yelled back.
Claire's stomach lurched at the idea. For some reason jumping out of a plane at fifteen thousand feet seemed an easier option than throwing herself off a bridge with a piece of elastic tied to her ankles. This way, at least it wouldn't actually be her doing the jumping. She was pretty certain the burly blonde man designated her tandem partner would make sure she didn't chicken out.
Claire looked around the cabin at the other passengers. She seemed to be the only one not grinning. Even the seventy-year-old grannie was peering through the open doorway with interest. Maybe you worried less about dying when you'd lived more of your life.
It was the grannie that had swung it, in the end. Bethan's entreaties had fallen on deaf ears. She'd let herself be talked into the heli-hike and, although it had been beautiful, she wasn't sure it had been worth the money. This was equally expensive, especially with the extra for the photographic evidence, and Claire was pretty certain she was going to enjoy it a lot less. Then the old lady had turned up, and shame had taken over.
Claire felt numb as she followed the burly man's instructions, listening intently as he ran though again how she had to hold her arms and what she needed to do on landing.
Then, before she knew what was happening, a body plummeted from the plane. Claire's heart skipped and her instinct was to reach out and grab at the disappearing figure. Then another person fell, and she realised they had started to jump. Her stomach knotted tight and she thought she might be sick.
One by one the passengers disappeared from view at incredible speed until she was the last one left.
"Let me go back down in the aircraft, I've changed my mind." She could feel the blood draining from her face and wondered if the man would still jump if she passed out.
He shoved her towards the gaping hole, and Claire just had time to register the blue of the lake and the blend of green and white of mountains before air was rushing past her and she was falling.
Shock pushed all the air from her lungs and she gasped, unable to breathe. The wind pulled at her cheeks and the cold burned her skin. Claire barely registered the ground leaping up to meet her or the other skydivers around them, until her host tapped her on the arm and she looked over to where he pointed.
Falling alongside them was the camera girl. She waved and gave a thumbs up. Claire tried to smile but her face was frozen in a mask of fear.
The camera girl circled them, taking pictures, before changing her body position so she could dive to the next person and photograph them. Part of Claire's brain marvelled at her casual ease, as if she were walking across a garden rather than plummeting at 200km an hour through the sky.
A sudden jolt told Claire the parachute had opened. She watched as other chutes opened beneath her. She could see some of the people swinging from side to side, spinning in spirals down to the lake. It looked like fun. She waited for her host to do the same, but he didn't.
Still breathless and panting, she was unable to ask him why they were falling so sedately. Disappointment clouded her vision and she looked at the view below through jaded eyes. Her host clearly thought she was having a panic attack and wanted to get her to the ground quickly and gently.
She wanted to explain she was fine, that it was only the shock of the jump that had stopped her breathing, but there wasn't time. The land once more rushed up to meet them, and before she knew what was happening, it was time to lift her feet up and let the man land.
Sadness fought with exhilaration and, eventually, elation won.
"That was amazing! I want to go again, now!" Claire looked around for someone to hug, and saw Bethan running towards her.
They walked arm in arm to return their kit and watch the video. Claire wondered how she would drop it into conversation with Conor that she had jumped from an aircraft at fifteen thousand feet. She wondered if he would be impressed.