2,487 Web Pages

Everyone who spends any time at all on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social networking site, has seen those ecards with the black-and-white illustration and some sharp, snarky commentary.  I love them.  They almost always make me laugh, particularly the ones relating to motherhood.

There was one going around recently that says if you want to know what the inside of a woman's brain is like, imagine a browser with 2,487 web pages open simultaneously.  Sometimes, I feel like that's absolutely true.  Of course, there are also the days when the wifi is down and no web pages will open.

When I was part of the traditional workforce, prior to having kids, I was absolutely a Type-A control-freak.  Everything on my desk was organized.  I had a white board on the wall with different color markers to keep track of multiple projects and the complex maze of formulas and code relating to the spreadsheets I spent my days programming.  I was good at my job!  I could multi-task all day long!

I am not, however, the kind of person who can have the radio and the TV on at the same time and not feel like I'm going crazy.  My husband can filter the sounds and has no problem watching a TED video on his iPad while simultaneously watching a DVR'ed episode of Elementary with me.  I can't focus on either, and I'm left with nothing.

Now, I live with the Little One (age 3) and the Bean (age 4 1/2).  And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be certifiably looney before long.  They talk...about everything.  All day.  ALL DAY.  The Bean even said in the car tonight that he can talk while he's sleeping.  YAY!!!!  It is like have the radio and TV on simultaneously, while some cackling little imp in the corner just keeps pushing the VOL ^ button.  They talk over each other, over everyone else, around each other...but almost never to each other.  Always to me.  At the same time.  And while my poor scrambled brain is trying to filter their voices to make sense the questions so I can form some kind of an answer, they've moved on to repeating the questions a dozen times because I didn't answer immediately.  Even when I do manage to get an answer in edgewise, they keep repeating the question because they didn't hear the answer.  They were too busy...talking!

I want to be clear - I love that they ask questions and share their views on the world around them.  Their insights are, by turns, funny, thoughtful, and usually, spot-on.  My kids are not sheep - they won't be led along blindly anywhere.  Their curious minds are trying to understand everything they see, and I want them to wonder about this world we share.  This will be something I'm intensely proud of in a few years.  I love it.  But it's also exhausting.

So, maybe my brain isn't like having 2,487 websites open simultaneously.  But, I'm pretty sure having two preschoolers in the house is like having 900 HD satellite TV channels and every possible Pandora station going at the same time.