‘Teamwork makes the dream work’: how one Christian family is tackling selfishness

There were yells coming from the kitchen at 6.30am one Monday morning. I woke to the sound of screeching and then our bedroom door being slammed against the wall as one of my children stormed in, obviously incensed at the utter injustice that has been done to her. There was energy, there was emoting, and I’d like to say I handled it with grace and excellent parenting skills; but that would be a lie. It is rumoured that I sat up in bed, pointed to the bedroom door, and said, quite forcibly, “OUT! I don’t care!” It was 6.30 in the morning AND I hadn’t had the best night’s sleep (in my defence!).

My morning went from bad to worse. My youngest lost every single sock in the world, my eldest lost her music book and the middle two were arguing about who was going to empty the dishwasher. Whose turn it was and wasn’t! I raced out the front door, six minutes late, to take the kids to school and get to work myself. We got three minutes up the hill and child number three screeched, “My art homework!” One U-turn later and we were finally on our way. By the time I got to work, it felt like I had already worked a full day.