Age Check and Fitted Sheets

It was almost dinner time and our son began to whine in anticipation of being forced to eat something he's already forgotten he's tried and liked several times before. That strange feeling of frustration, desperation, impatience, and anxiety mixed together began to simultaneously swell up from my gut and sweep down from my head to ultimately converge in my throat and overflow from my mouth onto that poor boy. But I reminded myself, "He's only four." Then our daughter began to cry at the table because she wanted to get down early and play. My wife was experiencing a headache, and I could tell she was beginning to experience the same feeling I had a minute ago. I said, "Honey, she's only two." Not a few minutes later the baby dropped food on the floor, and that feeling came back--you can tell dinner is a stressful time for us--and my wife reminded me, "She's only one." It's a good thing at least one of us remembers the kids' ages at times like these and can remind the other. Amazingly, no tempers were lost and no voices were raised, except in rejoicing that we made it through dinner.

Perhaps our short fuses, which miraculously did not get burned out at dinner, were the result of staying up too late last night folding a seemingly endless supply of laundry. I am all too happy to help fold almost anything. But when my wife handed me a fitted sheet I threw it back into the basket in frustration and proclaimed, "I do not fold fitted sheets!" It began back when I realized just how overwhelming all of that laundry was, and trying to be a sweet husband, jumped in to lend a hand. I grabbed a fitted sheet and began to fold it, quickly realizing that solving a Rubik's cube would be easier. I made several attempts, determined to face this challenge and conquer it. Each time, I was met by laughter and teasing from my wife as I witnessed her effortless and perfect refolding of the fitted sheet I had just "folded." Eventually, it became too much. I am not a quitter, but I do know when I do not have the mental or physical capacity to do something. Folding a fitted sheet is that something.