Thank You for Helping but...

I am a patient person.  In fact, I pride myself on my patience as a parent.  However, some days you just reach your limit.  For me, this usually happens when I try to do something too ambitious around the farm while simultaneously watching two kiddos.  Today was no exception.  Given the forecast of plummeting temperatures, I came up with the bright idea of mucking the barns.  It is easier to scoop the poop at -8 degrees C than at -28 degrees C.  I have actually become quite adept at barn mucking with one child.  But with two, it is another story entirely.

My first inkling that things were starting to go off the rails was when I looked over my shoulder while pushing the wheelbarrow toward the manure pile, to see Seamus crawling on his hands and knees through the chicken hatch.  Deep breath.  In case it is not obvious, the reason you muck a coop is because the floor of the coop is covered with bird crap.  When asked why he felt it was a good idea to go through the chicken hatch, Seamus answered that he was "watching the chickens" for me.  My response, "Thank you for helping but that is pretty gross.  Next time can you please walk around the coop and use the people door?"  All of his winter clothes are now in the washing machine.

Next, Seamus tried to help by "feeding" the chickens for me.  To do so, he tipped over their feeder spilling at least 5 pounds of feed onto the human side of the coop.  Deep breath x2.  My response, "Thank you for helping but the chickens do not live on this side.  Can we please try to keep the chicken feed on the chickens' side of the coop?"

Finally, I left the boys spreading hay on the floor of the newly cleaned coop to retrieve the shovel and pitch fork from around back in the chicken run.  I returned to find that they had cut the baler twine off a new bale of hay and were now spreading it out all over the coop (chicken and human side).  I had already given them more than enough hay to do the job. Deep breath x3.

My response, "Thank you for helping but you have made quite a mess.  I think we need to go inside now before Mama runs out of patience."

I cleaned the donkey and sheep's barn after putting the boys down for nap.  Charlie's method of helping - supervising from a distance - is much more my style.