Being an adoptive Mum is...

...having to think for the children.  What I found the most mentally tiring was having to think for the children when I asked them to do something.  For example, cleaning their teeth, I couldn't just send them into the bathroom, I would have to take them in, stop them from squabbling as to who stands where (each now has their own step stools - that was the answer!), who gets to use the toothpaste first (Mummy does it now because they can't squeeze the tube carefully), who turns over the timer (each take it in turn each day), showing each of them how to clean their teeth, stopping them from playing with the toothbrushes like swords or trying to clean the plughole with the toothbrushes or poking another's eye out, trying in vain to get them to spit out the toothpaste, showing them how to rinse the toothbrushes, reminding them to put the toothbrushes in the pot rather than chuck them in the sink...the longest two minutes of my life!