When the Lord was born, the best piece of advice anyone ever gave me was :

You will have a hundred battles a day, but you’ll only win one – pick it wisely!

These words of wisdom have stuck with me for over three years and have pretty much become my mantra.

With two feral spirited boys, battles are just a part of life.  It’s how you deal with them that matters.  I once had aspirations about the perfect family with immaculately behaved children, dressed in matching outfits.  It probably took all of two hours after the General was born to realise that was an impossibility!

I now use a simple chart to decide which battles are worth fighting:

Pick your battles, The British Maple, 2016

Yes, running circles around the kitchen island is chuffing annoying but it keeps them busy and no one gets (seriously) hurt.  No, I don’t want them screaming the theme tune to Paw Patrol all afternoon, but at least I can sip some lukewarm tea.  Do I really want every book tipped out in my bedroom? No, but then I’d rather that, than have the pages ripped out.

Pick your battles, wisely and manage your expectations (have a ganders at Not Another Slippery Dip’s latest post about why ‘good-enough’ parenting is good enough -it’s a great read!)