Today was an eye-opener for me. I realized that my children are heavily dependent on - me. Of course I am a central figure in their life - I knew that. But they seem to need me at a level that I just cannot sustain.

Let me explain. My husband took a vacation day today, so he was home. With beautiful weather outside, I put my gardening hat on and went a little crazy. My daughter and I visited the local gardening store and picked up far too many flats of annuals - more than mommily possible to plant in one day.

Sure enough, the evening arrived too soon. I took a break from planting to drive the boys to their practices and run a few errands. Upon my return, my yard was just as I left it - strewn with flats of plants and gardening tools. I told my husband that I needed to finish up and would be in shortly, “why don’t you take charge of dinner and serve a wonderfully healthy meal of hot dogs?”

“Sure ” was the reply.

From that point on, every two minutes - I kid you not - every child including my husband called outside to me - EVERY 2 MINUTES. “mom, I need this”, “mom, help me with that”, “mom, dad said I can’t do whatever” and on and on. The final straw came when one of my older children came outside and wanted me to toast his hot dog bun because no one else could do it the same as me.

Now, I know it is nice to be loved and needed but this is ridiculous. And - NO - I didn’t toast it for him! But I realize that my children (and my husband) need to become more self-sufficient. Oh sure, they would manage just fine without me, but if I am there - I am like a crutch that they use to lean on.

I really don’t know what the answer is but I know that I will “burn out” being everybody’s everything.