Family Requests

It is routine for me to have up to 5 conversations at once. This is the norm in my house where everything that happens, goes wrong, breaks, is cause for celebration, or just needs to be acknowledged needs to go through me. Being the filter, sounding board, firewall, and defender among other things for my family is, needless to say, very taxing on me mentally. Most of all, the multi-tasking of conversations... that is what gets to me the most. Like just now as I was preparing to come downstairs to my basement office to get some "computer-stuff" (which amounts to many variety of things) done I was bombarded with only 4 discussions this time. Each family member (my wife, 2 daughters and son) all wanted to say something, defend something, or ask for something. It took everything I had left at this point in the evening to make it past them to the stairs.

Moving past them still requires me conversing with them. There is no *avoiding* anything in this house. If it is an issue or need fixing - I am the one they call. Sometimes I should just turn away but that is difficult for me to do when I am given a request by anyone in my family. They are all my kids (and wife) after all. What kind of father would I be if I just ignored them for my own benefit? I complain, but without them (and their requests) I guess I would be nothing.