Tipping point could be blamed on Tiani’s two days off school with gastroenteritis followed by another day away with a dreadfully heavy cold, or her optometrist appointment and the $400 bill for the prescribed glasses, or our day trip to Melbourne so she could catch-up with her orthodontist. 

All of those certainly cranked up our case of crazy. 

Church was restful, but Yasinta attended her sixth birthday party for 2017, started up volleyball again with duty on the first night and brought home a clarinet to stay, while battling nerves about her Year 7 vaccinations. 

Collecting costumes for the school swimming sports, chiropractic care and  catching up with the choir while bombarding me with permission slips for poetry performances, science mentoring, athletics training and the fashion parades at the Field Days forbid Katianna from freely flopping around. Alongside attending paid work, music lessons and Edge Youth our eldest was fully occupied.     

Tiani continued to ever so politely elbow me about the necessity to knuckle down and source her some hard shoes for Irish dancing.  She lost her voice before the first run through of Annie’s act one but recovered in time for her singing lesson. 

When I felt I was drowning in meal preparation, laundry and dishes Yasinta was too taken doing her maths homework or hair to help, Katianna was engaged with a timeline of scientific discoveries about the atom and colouring-in and Tiani was already tied up writing down her times tables and trampolining. 

Completing the paper work for a Community Grant was a challenge for me as I didn’t seem to know the answers to any of the questions. All the while, my husband took the time to add finishing touches to our rebuilt kitchen, so I found myself ducking under dangling door trims to get to my desk and climbing over the air compressor to clean the carpet while jolted by the intermittent pop of the nail gun.

I fear this epidemic might be something we need to learn to live with, rather than find a cure for.