Friday, November 30, 2012

High speed parenting...

Hello friends,
I am going to tell you about my morning.  Most of the time I don't think you would be interested....but....today was different.  This day and blog post is almost a response to a blog I read yesterday.  Here is the link- http://toholdyoudear.wordpress.com/
It is written by my cousin's cousin.  (Doesn't that sound like we are related?? :) I am a cousin on her dad's side and this amazing writer and mom is a cousin on her mom's side.  clear??  Onward.

The last week I have woke up and felt like I didn't even sleep. Not sure why, but it just is.  My alarm goes off at 7:00.  Very rarely do I use this alarm, as my dogs and kids are needy at all hours!  This morning was no exception. My little dog wanted to go out at 6am. done. I am standing outside with both dogs and my 4 year old is now up.  She wants to watch the Grinch.  Lets just say it is her FAVORITE movie ever. EVER. I allow her to watch it ONLY in December.  For her health  and mine you can only watch so much Grinch   I looked at the clock. SCORE! If we run to the basement she can watch the Grinch and I can sleep for another 45 minutes. GO!!! My 9 year old comes down to watch the Grinch too.  So now both kids, both dogs, and myself are piled on the couch.  Here is where it all turns....My alarm on my phone was under the blanket so I didn't here it. It is 7:10.  My 9 year old screams...MOM TODAY IS MATH TEAM TRY-OUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now the try-outs are BEFORE school. This is when our house looked like a track and field meet. My nine year old and I are running, my 4 year old is screaming because we have interrupted her 400th viewing of the Grinch  I am making oatmeal at neck-breaking speeds.  My 9 year old is frantically getting dressed with whatever clothes she can find. The 4 year old is now running too. I think she just didn't know what else to do.  The kids are shoveling oatmeal down as the 9 year old updates us every 30 seconds.."8 MINUTES UNTIL WE NEED TO LEAVE"  7 MINUTES UNTIL WE NEED TO LEAVE!!!!....and so on. Just in case I have to get out of the car, I run upstairs to put some clothes on and maybe some "drive-by" makeup.  My husband is JUST NOW GETTING IN THE SHOWER.  In his defense, he has no idea all of this is happening, last thing her knew was that our dog needed to go to the bathroom.   I throw on clothes, swipe on lipstick and run downstairs, both girls are already in the car and ready.  I can still hear the Grinch's heart growing 3 sizes down in the basement. No time to even put the dogs in the laundry room....It's go time :)  (Mind you the dogs act like ...well animals...if left to have the run of the house..)  We made it to school. I didn't have to get out of the car, and I am assuming she made it to try-outs as I saw her disappear into her school.  I came home, turned off the TV, cleaned up the messes my animals made in the 7 minutes I was gone, had coffee, brushed my hair, made lunch for my 4 year old, packed her bag,  and helped her find a show and tell.  yep. Rocked out the mom thing this morning. sigh.

The above posted blog, that I linked you to, is so amazing and I felt myself having a conversation WITH Kelsey.  So here is really the only valid point I can add to such a well written blog. Karma. Motherhood has been a lesson in karma.  I found in the "kidless" world  that karma happened, but much slower. I get a good dose of karma DAILY as a mom. Examples....As soon as I am(internally) a little cocky that I have pulled it together, I am quickly remided that I am falling apart.  Sometimes I internally judge other moms, or sometimes how their kids act. (You know you do it too, stop judging, my judging.)  When I look at a child and think, I am so glad my kid would never act like that, usually that day they will do something JUST like that or worse.

My 9 year old is VERY into soccer, and I am at the fields often. I will usually see the same moms there.  One one particular day, I had on a cute outfit, I was on time, we had all neccesary items for soccer, I had rocked it out. I was feeling pretty proud. I looked to my left and a mom was walking up and seemed to have a beam of light around her. She must have just left her professional modeling job to bring her child to practice. She sat a few feet from me. I was blinded by her long perfectly curled blonde hair.  I looked down and noticed a big streak of yogurt on my coat, courtesy of my 4 year old.  I almost cried. really. I judged her, I thought, it must be nice to show up for soccer and look like you are walking slow motion in a Hollywood film at all times, I felt jealous.  The next week, she was there again,   again she looked amazing....like REALLY amazing. This happened a few weeks in a row.  I then had a practice that I couldn't be at, my husband took over that night. I won't lie, I was a little relieved.  He called on the way home to let me know they had left practice and his voice was obviously different. I asked what was wrong and he said we will talk about it later. hmmm?
When he got home he told me that there was a dad at practice that stopped practice to confront his child. This dad felt like his child was not doing well and trying hard enough. Mark said this man was humiliating his child and everyone was so uncomfortable. Mark was telling me how this child looked like she wanted to dig a hole and hide and her mom/this man's wife looked broken hearted.  I asked him if she had long blond hair. She did.  I was smacked with karma. I am a mom, and I have no idea what other moms are doing or how they are living.

Kelsey is so right, we just need to be the best mom that we can be, for our life that we have. Today I was that mom, I did approximately 30 things in 10 minutes.It wasn't perfect but all goals were met.  By telling the last story, I am really  throwing myself under the bus. I am a pretty good person and do love most people I meet, but by letting you into my internal dialog, I let you learn a lesson at my expense  We are all fighting a battle, and you don't know what that perfect mom has going on.  I am praying to be a more supportive mom, even internally where no one else can hear.

Happy Friday to you all!!


No comments:

Post a Comment