Waiting

Being a parent is difficult. Being a parent can be frustrating. One of the biggest lessons you can learn is to pick your battles, as sometimes you are always going to be onto a loser. Especially if you are tired, or the kids are tired, or you're both tired.
There are often times when the kids are sitting on the potty, maybe just before you're about to go out, or you are going to do something in particular. And they are there for a looooonnnnng time! They might read a book (or lots of books), or fiddle about with a particular toy.
For them sometimes, it's not just about having a pee or a poo, it's some sort of exercise in calming down or centring themselves. And if you try standing there with a wipe in your hand, thinking it's just going to be a thirty second pee, then somehow you end up making it worse.
On other occasions, usually when it's time for bed, they suddenly have a burst of wanting to play. Be it doing some sticking, or drawing or playing with a particular toy. Again, it ends up being pointless demanding that they stop and begin letting you get them ready for bed as you both end up getting angry or frustrated, the night time routine draws out, there are tears and they take longer to settle.
That's not to say that you let them do what they want, but sometimes it's best just to take a bit of a back seat, do something for yourself in the way they are doing something for themselves, and in end you find you are all a bit more calm and in more of a listening mode.
It's taken me six years to work this out, and here is a poem I composed this acrostic the other day while musing on this subject, while watching my almost six year old fiddle about with some colouring pens:

Wilfully ignoring instructions
Acting up at bedtime
Ideas about what she wants to do
Trump what she needs to do
I'm waiting her out
No point getting angry or frustrated
Getting my 'me time' now