Feeling like a fraternity pledge

Day 5 of, as my friend N puts it, Reality Re-Entry, meaning re-entering the reality of my life with kids.  It has been a particularly rough reentry due to them being gone for 2 weeks.  We have nearly opposite parenting philosophies and schedules and the poor kids are really struggling coming back home.  By day 5, the exhaustion from too late bedtimes with their father are sinking in and the result is lots of tears and unhappiness as they readjust.  I feel like a fraternity pledge; up all night long dealing with ridiculous demands and questions (come sleep with me, I need my doll, I need a drink of water, what are we doing tomorrow?), working during the day, cleaning the house repeatedly as the brothers (or in this case the kids) apparently find it entertaining to immediately destroy the house the  moment they walk in the door so the poor pledge (or in this case me) can clean it all up.  There is food on the floor, empty cups strewn about, and somehow the bathroom floor always gets peed on.  The only difference is that a pledge starts paying monetary dues and the kids require I pay monetary dues (childcare, clothes, food, etc).  Granted, I get intrinsic rewards and the knowledge that I helped create a wonderful adult (hopefully), but damn, sometimes, I think that it would be better to get a monetary reward or at least a keg party out of the deal!

~G