Friday, August 01, 2008

One of Thoooooooooose days

Today was one of those days. One of thooooooose days. Nothing tragic happened, nothing calamitous. No one was sick or abducted or injured in any sort of tragic spear-fishing accident or anything. Just one of those days where if I’m being honest, I admit that for me, being a stay-at-home mom during the summer is WAY more work than during the school year. Because the kids are actually …. You know ….. HERE all day. WITH ME. Demanding all sorts of insufferable demands like bread and water and attention. Greedy little bastards.

All day, with the not-so-noticeable-as-to-be-blatant-but-just-under-my-skin-enough-to-drive-me-crazy whining and arguing and QUESTIONING everything. Every. Single. Thing. Not listening to what I say, not doing what I ask, going in a million different directions with the “Mom, this” and “Mom, that” and “Mom, she (fill in the blank)” and “Mom it’s not fair he (fill in yet another freaking blank)”. My decisions are always questioned in the hopes they can get me to change my mind. I can never please all three of them, so no matter what decision I make –about ANYTHING – where to eat lunch or where to go swimming or what to watch on tv …. SOMEONE accuses me of letting the OTHER ONES always get their way. “Because I said so” doesn’t hold as much weight in this house as I think it should, let me put it that way. And you know what? It’s exhausting.

They are tired from having company here all week, plus Kellen had soccer practice four nights this week, and Kendrie had her first soccer practice as well. Temperatures have been well over a hundred this week, so if you think running in that kind of heat isn’t tiring, think again. Plus she had a sleepover last night at a friend’s house and told me they stayed up until 1am. Brayden, well, I’m not sure what her excuse is except its apparently her job to fill in the gaps if her brother and sister aren’t doing a good enough job driving me nuts on their own.

My melt-down came in Target today, which is sad, because it’s one of my favorite stores in the whole world. I hate to think there is a sign near the cash registers now of my face with a big circle and a slash through it. We were buying school supplies, a simple-enough task. I was reading from the school list and instructing each kid on what they needed to take off the shelf and put in the cart. Simple enough, right? Take it OFF the shelf, and put it IN the cart. How hard can it be? But after the delimma of the pencils, and the drama of the glue sticks, and the saga of the erasers --- for goodness' sake, they're stupid pink erasers just pick some who cares what they look like?!?!?!?! None of them could decide exactly which notebooks they wanted and then Kellen got mad when Kendrie picked the same one he had. Brayden needs a new bike so I told her we would look, but the one she picked out was two hundred dollars and when I said “no way, Josie” she got mad because “she never gets anything she wants!” Kendrie kept asking to go to the pet aisle, and Kellen was frustrated with me because they didn’t have the shoes he wanted in his size. I’m not quite sure how that was my fault exactly … I guess because I didn’t pull a size 6 OUT OF MY ASS.

When we finally walked up to the register I saw another mom I know and stopped to say hello. We were chatting for a moment and the kids were being a little rude, interrupting and asking for candy off the register, and telling me to please hurry up so we could go to Petsmart and buy stuff for Barley’s arrival tomorrow. I had turned my back to chat and without me noticing, they emptied my entire cart onto the belt, making trip after trip after trip from my cart to the register. *Maybe* they thought they were being helpful??? But I thought it was rude, like they were rushing me, and I was embarrassed when the cashier had to holler at me to point out an entire line of people were waiting on me to finish my conversation and pay.

I was seriously. Not happy. And didn't quite make it outside the store before telling the kids just what I thought of their behavior.

Earlier in the day we had gone to the library and the kids checked out several books about golden retrievers. One of them had a dvd in it about early dog training and dog care. And the kids were watching the video with Blaine, and arguing about who would get to hold Barley on the way home tomorrow, and who would get to walk her first, and who would help dad brush her each evening and clean her teeth every day. And mean words were tossed about as they tried in vain to establish a pecking order with regard to the dog.

And I stood in the kitchen, preparing dinner, and all I could think was, “What have we done? What unbelievable error in judgment have we made??? We can’t manage the three HUMAN pets we have now …. And we’re getting another one? A real one? ONE THAT EATS ITS OWN POOP?!?!?!?!

I fear we have made a tragic mistake.

Or perhaps I'm just not drinking enough.

18 comments:

wheelyfast said...

Days like that make me glad I don't have kids.
http://ramblingsofawheelyracer.wordpress.com/

Cindy said...

Eeep. I could feel my blood pressure rising right along with you!

Good luck tomorrow with the puppy!

Ann said...

Have another drink! Tomorrow will be a better day.

Ann

Natalie said...

Oh yeah, you're totally not drinking enough. Had a meltdown at Finn in Wendy's last Saturday right during the lunch rush. Fortunately it was in another town where I will now never go again because there is surely a picture of me with a Ghostbusters symbol as well.

Anonymous said...

I rarely comment but I'm glad to know my kids aren't the only ones. I wonder how I could have messed up so much as a parent. If I did half the things my kids do my parents would have knocked me into last year. I love my kids but, man do they irratate me some days. It's usually the hot days, a couple weeks before school starts. It reminds me why I don't homeschool. They can't get along for an entire summer, they'd kill each other or me if we were together all year.

Good luck.

Anonymous said...

I hear amaretto calling your name!
and once again I feel as though you have been hanging out at our house!! Some days I really don't CARE who started, who didn't, whose fault it is or isn't, just GET ALONG! We eat the "same things" for lunch every week and finally they stopped and thought about it today when I said - well guess what - in 19 days you can eat at the school cafe! So how do you like that! Yes, I probably did NOT win "mom of the year" but I didn't care! I just wanted peace & quiet!! But at the same time, its nice to know its just not my house that had everyday chaos!
Thanks for the laugh!
Kristina
Ohio

Anonymous said...

OMG - did my one kid morph into your three? My day was just about the same. Thank goodness I go back to work in 19 days - then I'll have 5 days without my own child to get ready to teach 25 of someone else's kids! Luckily, no matter what they do they NEVER drive me as nuts as the one who lives in my house!!

Julie in Madison,WI

Anonymous said...

1) Target RULES!
2) To have the shopping trip be tormented by kids is the worst (know from experience!)
3) Deep breath and a big shot of xxx cures everything!

mary cron schulman
crosslake/san diego

Anonymous said...

First.....don't worry, they will have to make room beside my picture at the registers at Target for yours.......and when you're a "repeat offender" like I am, I'm sure the pictures are bigger.....with flashing lights around them or something.

Second......I think we may have been separated at birth or something. Once again, you have typed actual words that have come out of my mouth....but you are one up on me, my 3rd child was TWINS!!!

Finally.....just count the days until they go back to school. When mine go back, I get to spend all day dealing with other people's bratty teenagers. And let me promise you this, we teachers DEFINITELY appreciate the parents who do blow up at the kids in Target......it WAY beats the ones who let the kids run wild!!

Hang in there! :o)

Musings from Me said...

What is it about back-to-school shopping that makes your kids totally lose it? Mine were thrilld to go shopping.

I made an upfront request that we reuse the following items from last year...scissors, calculator, and clip board. My daughter then informed me that both of her calculators were lost at school lat year...never mentioned this before now. Then we had the binder saga. Then one of them added colored index cards to the cart even when I said we had a stash at home--I noticed once we got home. I gave a warning to my oldest that if she gave me one more pouty look I would put all her carefully chosen binders back. Well, she gave me the look...why won't she learn!

Once again, I repeat "I will never homeschool."

Renee said...

Wow, as I read this, I was relieved to know my kids are not the only ones that act this way! Whew!

Thank God school starts soon.

Cindi said...

As Ginger said, as teachers definitely appreciate the parents who attempt to discipline their children.

Many times we not only teach (I teach elementary) but we also parent as well...thank you for doing your job, so I can do mine!

It will get better...as the mother of a 17 year old who just can't seem to drive "somewhere, anywhere" enough, my life is so much simpler now. For school supplies, I give him the money and he's aware that anything he gets over and above that amount comes out of his OWN "working teen's" pocket!

Anonymous said...

Oh.My.Goodness. All I can say is that I totally feel your pain. Listen, I think I did a head count of all our critters and it triples our family size. Ouch. Why, OH WHY do I keep saying yes! Like you, I feel I can barely manage our own human critters let alone the multitude we have now. Fear not, school will start soon and all will be back into a routine. I just threaten mine with school if they get to grumpy - the ol' homeschool advantage.
happy dogging!

Unknown said...

Don't just drink the alcohol, bathe in it, dab it behind your ears, gargle, soak your feet...whatever! Just do it.

My SIL's mother has a shit-su (sp) who eats her own poop. She's so proud of the fact that her carbon footprint is small because of the recycling aspects of her dog doing this.

Mom to the 3rd Power said...

Yeah, I seem to be living in the same HELL as you. My new favorite day of the year is currently the first day of school...
I feel like a total ass when I read other blogs that the mom's seem to be upset by the new school year starting...huh? I'm NOT afraid to start waking up at 6 am to get them gone! Dusting my alarm clock as we speak.

Anonymous said...

Its OK, from what I can tell of my shopping over the weekend; everyone's kids are acting crazy! Glad I was alone...only had to dodge them!

Anne in Georgia

Anonymous said...

I can so relate. We just got a boxer puppy last Saturday, and I keep thinking I have made a tragic mistake. I have 3 boys ages 8, 5, and 5 that are also trying to establish pecking order with the dog and then get jealous of the dog when she gets my attention. I'm guessing I need to drink more too!!!

Anonymous said...

School starts in 21 days!!!

Diane in Cincinnati