Daily activities such as getting groceries can turn into a nightmare of willpower on the turn of a dime. Negotiating a narrow aisle with grumpy offspring withdrawing the ire of fellow-shoppers can make this a task (which I love on my own) one to dread. Then there' s swim class at the Y. God knows I love how affordable it is. But the downside of that is that a huge amount of children learning to swim (or resisting in our case), loudly, in a contained, echoey area is enough to drive an adult to the nearest bar afterwards. And don't even mention school pick-up.  This is when over 200 first graders are led out of the school and you have to pick yours out of the bunch at the same time as many other caregivers plus try to cajole your younger, accompanying child, into submission. Or at least into not disappearing on the already crowded playground.

Can you tell that it has been one of those days?