A certain amount of novelty can be a plus on any job. Cuts down on boredom, stimulates creativity and productivity. But an excess of unpredictability creates tremendous stress.

Could there be any job more unpredictable than motherhood?

[caption id="attachment_528" align="alignleft" width="196" caption="Matthew at age 2, playing in the sprinkler"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MattSprinkler.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-528 " title="MattSprinkler" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MattSprinkler-296x300.jpg" alt="" width="196" height="198" /></a>[/caption]

I remember the day I checked on 17 month old Matthew and found him playing happily on top of our old upright piano.  Just moments before, he'd been happily marching around the kitchen and into the living room, down a short hall and back into the kitchen - round and round, in and out of the kitchen where I was fixing supper.

No mystery how he climbed onto the piano bench, or from the piano bench to the piano keys.  But how on earth did he scale the distance from the keys to the tops of that old piano?  And why?

I could only thank God that I checked on him BEFORE he decided to take a head-first dive from that height!

And then there was the evening I fixed everyone hot chocolate. I found three matching cups for our (then) four children.  The fourth cup was yellow, Benjamin's favorite color.

[caption id="attachment_529" align="alignright" width="209" caption="Benjamin, age 3"]<a href="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj3yr.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-529" title="Benj3yr" src="http://motherhoodstress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Benj3yr-209x300.jpg" alt="" width="209" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

So I handed Benjamin his cocoa in his favorite color cup.  And he pitched a fit.  Went to bed without his treat, rather than drink hot cocoa from a yellow cup.

So much for a pleasant evening snack routine!

Motherhood brought me much more joy than I ever thought possible - but more unpredictability, too.

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. . . from <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Motherhood Stress, Finding Encouragement in the Ultimate Helping Profession</span>

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