Where did the time go???

8 years! 8 short years is how long I have been a mummy (not the toilet roll accessorising kind a mother). In those 8 years I have been blessed with 4 beautiful children, I have 2 girls and 2 boys. Some would say I have seen my fair share of everything child related from numerous A and E visits to being poked in the eye consecutively just for a bit of piece and quiet.
However there is still one thing I cannot solve, one thing I am desperate for the secret to, one thing that has left me completely and utterly stumped! Where does the time go? Before the children were born I heard this phrase from numerous people at different occasions I would usually smile in agreement and sometimes reply with "yes today has gone quick" or "time flies when your having fun". But I never fully understood what happened to one of the most logical and understandable things human kind concocted until I was blessed with my little time wasters. You may be horrified at the term 'time wasters' being used on my own children but I use it in an affectionate way. I have often and I am sure I am not alone got stuck into cleaning the cooker your up to your elbows in grease and grime from last weeks (and the week before if your honest) roast dinner. The power spray is foaming and you are scrubbing realisation of why you were putting this job off dawning on you. Your 1 year old is asleep your not going to hear from him for at least an hour, your 3 year old is in front of the telly peppa pig on a loop snack, drink all within his easy reach and you put him on the loo before you started you should have 20 minutes to get this job done before he gets bored. The scrubbing is in full swing when in he walks in "mummy" his voice rising at the end you don't look at him, head stuffed in the oven, you hear the peppa pig theme tune, a new episode he will hear it and retake his seat in the sitting room. He doesn't!
"Mummy I want you sit down with me, I want tuddle (cuddle) pleeeeease" don't look at him you know if you look at him, at that blonde hair and big brown eyes you will give in you will stop. "Mummy I want a tuddle" he's crying you come out of the oven and look at his baby face the chubby hold still on his neck and wrists these years go so quickly and you had sworn u would enjoy every cuddle before they stopped wanting them. One cuddle won't make to much difference after all a cuddle only lasts 5 minutes. You take off your marigolds "5 minutes 1 peppa pig episode ok" I am saying this for my benefit more than his. "Ok mummy" he beams that huge smile and jumps up and down on the spot with excitement.
Do you sit for 5 minutes? Do you sit for 1 episode? No he sits so perfectly still holding you so tight that you both fall asleep before Peppa finds the ball in the tall grass. You wake up in a panic just before you have to leave to pick up the girls from school - where did the time go I haven't checked more than 3 things off my to do list.
This is one example of how time disappears another is the one that I struggle with the most the one that truly stumps me. We walk to school on my own it takes 3 minutes with the children it takes 5. We like to arrive at school at 8.35am logic tells you we should leave the house at 8.30, so putting shoes and coats on at 8.25 should allow us to leave on time. After all my 8 year old and 5 year old are more than capable of putting their shoes and coats on themselves. We start putting shoes on at 8.25, we leave the house between 8.40 and 8.45 15 to 20 minutes it takes my children to put their shoes and coats on. Their shoes which are in the cupboard exactly the same place everyday however they insist on asking me where they are every morning. Any logical person would look at this and say its a simple case of time management you want to be there at 8.35 it takes 5 minutes to walk., 20 minutes to put shoes on start putting shoes on at 8.10. So we do just that what do you imagine happens? You would not be foolish to think that it took them 40 minutes to put there shoes on, had this happened I would have concluded that this was a conspiracy the children had concocted to send me crazy. Sadly no this didn't happen we were all set and ready at 8.13. 3 minutes!!!! We were at school for 8.21 the gates were locked we were forced to stand outside freezing in the snow for 15 minutes the children sobbing that they were cold and asking "why did we have to leave so early?" So I ask again what cruel joke does time insist on playing with parents and why?
You would also not be completely foolish in thinking that when the weekends come around and my husband is home surely the task of getting out of the house is much easier. The cruel dictator of time must allow us to half our personal best when there is a dependable, organised male in the house. The answer is no it gets even more baffling, husbands need 40 minutes to get themselves ready to leave the house, but they can't share the children's 40 minutes, they can't occupy themselves while you get the children ready. No that is far to straight forward they demand a whole 40 minutes of their own usually whilst you are sat in the car waiting. That makes 80 minutes over an hour to get 4 children and a 30 year old man out of the house. Illogical!