What is it with 3 year olds?

A 3 year old child does not understand time schedules and does certainly not understand the concept of rushing.

Why is it that when time is tight, they decide to assert their independence with ultimate authority? For example, when it’s time to collect my eldest from school, the youngest decides it’s time to play on the computer and will not, under any circumstances, put his shoes on without brute force. Or at school run time in the morning, he decides he really *needs* a second breakfast.

I’m sure this is all quite normal in the mind of a developing young person, just at the age when they are progressing from the warm embrace of a stay-at-home-mum or a child-minder to the structure of a state-imposed curriculum of a nursery. HOWEVER, for us working mothers, it does not help with the emotional state; feeling that we are really quite relived to be depositing our children into the care of someone else when really our little ones would probably learn just as much about the world if they accompanied us out into the real world of work.

I have to say that over the last week while I’ve been trying to spend time concentrating on paper amendments, my younger son has proved a massive distraction (biology at play no doubt) and made me question all manner of relationships. Where will this test of human spirit end..?