THANK YOU ALL for listening and letting me vent. I feel a lot better now. I ended up taking a day off work to finish laundry and get a nap. I went out to a movie with my sister tonight as dh could see I NEEDED A NIGHT OFF. So that's good. I'm just taking a deep breath and moving on, moving through. Gotta just trudge on, one foot infront of the other, keep on keeping on.

Innerzone - I think you're so right, it IS a realistic picture. It sucks that in this day and age we are so isolated in our little family silos with so much responsibility placed on our shoulders and are not sharing the load (like childcare and housework) with other extended family. Not to idealize extended family involvement 'cuz mine are all batty (some in a good way and some in a bad way - lol). But it's so difficult to do it all. I need more help. I need help. And on occasion I can afford to hire cleaning help for short stints of time. And sometimes I can't. I need the kids to pitch in more, specifically the oldest one, but she's so freaking difficult. Her being difficult is not an excuse to get out of doing work though!!!! My middle child helps a lot, bless her little soul.

Turtlesoup: I have thought some therapy might be beneficial but I don't even know what angle to begin at! I have thought depending on how things go with the oldest, at times I have thought we need some guidance on dealing with her.

To all the parents in the house: I salute you! We've got to all hang in there together!!! ValentinaVV :hug My hats off to single parents. I don't know how you do it.

All this up and down. It's bedtime now, off I go. Thanks for listening again PC-ers. What a relief to be able to vent here.