Mothering in real life

Sometimes my day feels like I've run the gamut. I get up and take a shower and get dressed all with a to-do list streaming through my head over and over again "need to make oatmeal, need to make lunches, don't forget to sign the kids' planners, make sure the Em-ster has her snowpants, remain calm at work, it's only for 8 hours then you can come home, don't forget to take the meat out of the freezer for dinner" That sort of thing. If I can somehow get my lunch and breakfast sorted out and by some miracle get The Em-ster into the car by 7:20 I am doing well. If I can do that, wipe the counter and The Em-ster is still in a good mood then I am buying a lottery ticket! The Em-ster does not like to be rushed and will snarl and will slow down on purpose making me late for work. Again.

Once I get to work it's 8 hours of mind-numbing boredom with another to do list running through my head depending on the day "have to get out by 4:30 to pick up The Em-ster by 5, make dinner, clean up, make sure homework is being done, bedtimes start at 8 and maybe, maybe, maybe I can sit down and knit for 5 mins while they are doing silent reading and then maybe, maybe, maybe once everyone is in bed I can climb into bed and read my own book for 1/2 an hour"

Moms, you know what I'm talking about! 

What really happens is what happened tonight. I was in the middle of dinner preparation, The Em-ster grabbed her roller blades but NOT her helmet and headed out the door. You can see the confrontation a mile away. You know if you can just get the wording and the tone right she'll come in and put her helmet on and then you can keep right on cooking dinner and the neighbours won't hear your dysfunctional parenting all the way down the street. But instead His Lordship yells out the door "Where's your helmet?? Come in and put on your helmet"and all is lost. The Em-ster came storming in the house already in a bad mood because her best friend wasn't at After-school care today, she grabs her helmet, claims she "doesn't need a freaking helmet, you idiot" and flies out the door again. Sigh.

No parent can or should ignore the "you idiot" part of that exchange. His Lordship orders her back in (so the whole neighbourhood can hear) and takes away the roller blades for a month because he's tired from a long day and sick of being called an idiot. 

This is what parenting actually looks like in my house. No sugar-coating it today. We're doing our best and some days we win and all is peaceful and some days we struggle to balance our own issues with our sensitive kids' natures.

No one said this was going to be easy.

No one tells you all this when you casually say that maybe you'd like to have kids.

Maybe they do but you don't hear them-hmmnm?

There is a reason babies are so soft and sweet and just smell so darn good because if they weren't and didn't and came out as 9 and 12 year olds the human race would end awfully quickly!!