talking through the chaos

This is going to be a quick post because it's 11:19pm and I should be in bed resting up for the 10+-hour drive back home tomorrow. It's actually tomorrow's long drive (with four kids and lots of stuff packed into a very small, enclosed space) that got me thinking of today's mompreneur monday question: How is it your kids know when you're trying to make an important business call and choose that moment to wreak havoc in the background?

I find my children get along really well until I pick up the phone to make a call (okay, it doesn't matter if it's for georgie tees or to catch up with a good friend). The minute the line on the other end starts to ring it's complete chaos! My 2-year-old has chocolate all over his fingers and is wiping it on the couch, my older girls are suddenly fighting over whose turn it is to play our sole Super Mario DS game, and my 11-month-old is no longer happy with any of her toys and wants my phone instead. I'm starting to believe a freak force of nature goes to work on my children because somehow my home goes from tranquility to tornado in mere seconds.

And I know I'm not the only one. I've made a phone call or two and heard similar chaotic episodes in the background (and I find myself smiling in sympathy). Whether you chalk it up to Murphy's Law or motherhood it's pretty much a sure thing in my home. Pretty soon I'll be left with just two options: one, make phone calls from my bathroom, or two, invest in a lot of duct tape. --Emily