You know all those courses you attended back in school as part of career guidance where you learned “How to keep your customer happy” to “the customer is always right” in your first job. I bet you never thought you would be digging deep to using your skills on your “new customers” AKA in my case the twins.
Time Management
Hmmm, from day one Time management becomes an issue. Sleep deprivation, newborn euphoria, house cleaning( Ok not so much), cooking, need I go on . In actual fact I think the course you need to draw from here in the very early days is the Survival course. I didn’t foresee that I might possibly need to lower my standards and eat scraps from anywhere as I was passing through the blur of those newborn weeks. Bread became my best friend as it was so easy to grab sandwiches over anything else.
Multi-tasking
This is a specialised task , easier for women to get a grasp of than our male population for some reason. Fine tune this skill because it will stand to you once you get through the newborn fuzz. You will look back and pat yourself on the back. In my case being able to feed two babies, burb one whilst the other still fed and pick up the dodee that dropped on the floor with my foot was an achievement and gained me an hours quiet time after the mammoth feeding session was over. Now it will lend itself well to those panicked moments when the washing is ten feet deep , the dinner needs cooking and the kids need entertaining. I’m still fine tuning this skill since these days I can’t leave the room without my kids screaming for me like they haven’t seen me in ten years.
Acceptance
You haven’t gotten the desired result, this shows you how to move on and not let it overtake your emotions or future dealings. This is a skill that requires constant work and applies to all ages. Sleep forever will be a thing to aspire to. Enjoy the wins because remember that wave of “winning” may crash and burn at various times throughout your kids lives. When it comes back again welcome it back like an old friend but don’t forget what has happened in the past, ever. Accept the uncertainty that is children and prepare for all possibilities.
Persuasiveness
I thought I might not need to use these skills until the twins were at least talking properly but I do recall a moment when they were no more than 6 months old and one clobbered the other over the head in order to get the toy ball. Try reasoning with a six month old baby that the other ball ( identical by the way!) is as good as the one that was stolen from them. Don’t worry though you will get lots of practice at this. Take today, I had the helpful vocal inputs from the aggrieved party whose water was more bubbly than the others…..
Rejection
Ah that old feeling that causes so much pain in work and personal situations throughout all our lives. Well let me tell you nothing hurts more than seeing the dinner you have slaved over and cooked the minute you got in the door from work without taking so much as five-minute rest , now all over the floor. Those cute cherub mouths couldn’t possibly utter stinging words such as ” I don’t like that dinner” or did I just see a glint in the eyes as that statement(and plate) was flung at me. I would begin to wonder about my cooking ability except for the fact that firm favourites can become the twins worst nightmare dinner the following day.
Stress Management
Rejection leads lovely into stress management. A week of dinners being fecked at you can result in the pressure cooker that is your brain begin to steam and hiss. Can I suggest here just turn on the TV and serve fish fingers, they will soon come back around to being mini dustbins. Eating and Sleep and lack thereof are the two things destined to send most of us to the internet ,to obsess and obsess some more over how to turn things around. We become balls of stress as we try to figure out what to do next and find the Holy grail to read that will return behaviour to normal.
Mind Reading
Let’s move swiftly onto the next point here shall we as whoever can mind read a toddler or baby will make millions when then figure out how to !
And I think we cannot end this session without a little, and I know it’s everyone’s’ favourite part of the training course,
Role Play
No moans and groans here I promise. It’s not like one of those role play courses you have done in the past. Here you get to have make believe tea parties, get eaten by dinosaurs. You can be a climbing frame for your kids to jump all over. Play train conductor, be Elsa or Anna,depending on your choice of sisters and slide down the slide in the playcentre and relive your youth with your kids at your side.
“Adulting” is tiring and every once in a while it’s just nice to plonk yourself down on the floor and play restaurant. In our one you are guaranteed to always have lots of ice-cream and coffee. How bad !
DodeestoDaquiris 
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