The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Just Plain Funny
November 11, 2009
I’ll start with the bad and ugly. It is always best to just rip that band-aid right off. So, yesterday sucked. I mean, really, really sucked. I have had tailbone pain for several weeks now and yesterday it was especially bad. Not to mention, I woke up with good ole’ mastitis. For those who have never had the joy of experiencing mastitis to its fullest (104 fever, enormous red spot, enormous amount of pain) let me put it this way….I would rather give birth naturally again than experience that. Thankfully yesterday it wasn’t that bad. But, I felt very achy all over and had a great deal of pain to come with it. So we woke up and I explained to the kids that Mommy was sick and really needed them to be good. What do you think happened next? Well, all hell broke loose in my lovely home. If they could whine about it, they did. If they could fight over it, they did. If they could disobey, they did. By the time Breckin went to kindergarten at 8:30am, I had already lost my temper a few times. Not good considering I am a pretty calm mom. Then, I was stupid enough to think taking them to a park in the afternoon might make things better. I thought we could all use the fresh air and maybe it would adjust everyone’s attitude. And while my kids were great at the park, there was a little boy there who was playing way too rough. He punched and pushed Breckin twice and shoved Arwyn down twice. He was also throwing dirt in their eyes. He was 5 or 6 and I kept looking around for his mom to come over and discipline him for hurting other kids. But, I did not see the mom anywhere, so twice I asked him to stop playing like that with my kids. He didn’t. Then, he pushed Arwyn down to the ground for the second time and Momma Bear came out of me with full force. I was at the end of my rope anyway, and this boy took the last bit of sanity I had left. I stomped over and yelled, “That is it! Get away from my daughter!” Yes, I yelled at someone else’s child. Then I yelled, “Where are these children’s parents!?” Not my best moment. Actually probably my worst. I really wanted to yell at that boy’s mom, not him. But even then, that wasn’t okay. Bad, bad day.
Now for the good….
In the midst of this horrible day yesterday, I started to cry. Okay, sob. I was sitting on the couch nursing Judah, which was extremely painful and I was overcome. I sobbed and sobbed for a few minutes. This is something my kids rarely see me do. I don’t cry much and even when I do, I don’t necessarily do it in front of them. Pretty sure the last time they saw me cry was during the Asthma Debacle of 2009 back in May. So, anyway, Arwyn walked up to me and we had the following conversation:
Arwyn: Mommy, why did you cry?
Me: Arwyn, Mommy is really sick today and my back really hurts. I don’t feel good. And I asked you and Breckin to try to be nice today, but you haven’t been nice. You have been disobeying and saying mean things all morning and you have hurt my feelings. You and Breckin hurt my feelings.
Arwyn: (completely confused look on her face) But, Mommy, I didn’t know you have feelings.
What a true statement! It made me realize that hiding my tears and emotions from them all of the time doesn’t help them, it hurts them. They probably don’t realize that I can feel upset just like them.
And the funny….
Today I walked into my living room to find my older children (okay, mostly just Arwyn) coloring Judah’s head with markers. Yep…markers. It was really hard to keep a straight face while sending them to time-out.
Posted in Uncategorized
