Never again...

... will I take my 2 children shopping together. I foolishly thought they would enjoy it, after all, I was going to be buying clothes for them and not me. They usually enjoy shopping for themselves - though hate it when I look at things for me. It took moments before there were squabbles in the car. So for punishment I told them that my first stop would be the knitting department of John Lewis. Not, as it turned out, one of my better moves!

Eventually we went to their shops and bought bags full of stuff (none of this was achieved without arguments) then I took them out for lunch thinking that would improve the mood. And as soon as we had lunch they started again. Arguing, tripping each other up, shoving, pushing, generally being those nightmare children that you see other mothers struggling with. They are, let me remind you, 9 and 14!!!!!

By this time, my stress levels were on a par with Mr Stressy's (thank God he was at work though, he would have been arrested for murder had he been with us). To calm down, I headed back to John Lewis, deposited youngest son - who complained to anyone who would listen that his feet hurt - on some comfy chairs and looked round the ladies clothing department. I had long since stopped talking to eldest son, letting him peruse a sports shop. I tried on lots of clothes, bought lots of clothes (gulp, had guilt trip about that) and was much calmer. So it was then back to the car and come home.

Oh and I forgot to mention that I got lost on the way there and on the way back - my sense of direction is so very, very bad.

I needed chocolate and tea on my return. Then I had to decorate a cake - youngest son is going to a party tomorrow (ha, bet his feet won't ache there!) so I've made a cake for a birthday present. Not all the sweets ended up on the cake. Many of them went in my mouth.