Abby do you believe in God?

No

I do.

Why?

I don’t know?

Well, how do you know? Where is he?

I don’t know – I think he lives with poor people…

I am a mum to 4 little girls and I have recently realized that parenting is never going to be easy. You would have thought this would be apparent after 3 kids, but no it took the 4^th to really sink in!

The reason for this lightbulb flash? Three of them are now in school. This means I get 3 sets of instructions from at least 6 sets of teachers; 3 sets of homework; 3 sets of e-mails with sometimes harmless content and sometimes nail-biting, jaw-dropping, teeth-gnashing stories.

These e-mails are new. I never got e-mails until this year. Why am I getting e-mails now? In a word: Buffy.

She is 5- precocious, sassy, smart, funny and hell-bent on giving me a full-on anxiety attack. Last month’s sassiness morphed into outright stubbornness and rude behavior followed by punching, kicking and the oft-heard “I don’t understand what you’re saying!” We have been e-mailed at least once a week. We have been called by the assistant principal.

I have talked, begged, bribed. Each day she gets on the bus I eye my inbox with trepidation…