Category: bad day

bad day, gratitude, mommyhood, parenting, self-discovery

Diamond Days

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Maybe I’m not in the greatest mood.  Maybe things haven’t gone exactly my way this week.  Maybe Mad Dog is traveling and Full Speed and T.Puzzle brought their full court press tonight.

Maybe I need to write about something that makes me smile before my mood gets to the point of no return.  Or I could just post this:

Maybe I need to admit that not every day or every week is a diamond.   Maybe tomorrow or the next day will be better and be exactly what I need.  Or maybe, just maybe, what I have right here, right now, even though it feels kind of weighted and difficult, is exactly what I need because I might just learn something.

bad day, kids, mommyhood

You Called It

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We are slowly getting back to our regular routine. I knew little T.Puzzle’s first day back at school was going to be ‘challenging’ after such a long vacation. In other words, it was really going to hit the fan. If you’ve read this blog enough, you know exactly what I mean.

During the week I did my best to prepare him for his return. I would tell him what we had planned for each day and talk enthusiastically about him going back to school on Friday.

He didn’t buy a word of it.

All I could do was rise and shine and put my game face on for school day. The boys were both awake when I determinedly entered their room.  Full Speed was beaming. He was happy because he still had another day at home. Little T.Puzzle was a whining, miserable mess.

Full Speed pops up from bed and darts to the bathroom. Little T.Puzzle moves at sloth speed and tears abound. His attitude goes from bad to worse in six seconds flat and I order him back to his room to shape up. Then all we hear are piteous cries coming from the boys’ room.

I don’t know if it was the exhaustion of hosting six additional people for several days or my trips to the pool and beach, but in the midst of caring for all the clan, I had an earache brewing.

I offhandedly mention this to Mad Dog. Full Speed hears this too and promptly says, “I know why your ear hurts, Mom. It’s because little T.Puzzle is screaming so loud.”

Good call.

And for the record, little T.Puzzle had an awesome first day back.

bad day, mommyhood, potty training

‘Nuff Said

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My day started with little T.Puzzle absolutely refusing to wear a protective cape at his haircut. He kept yanking and yelling. The poor stylist was ready to go toe to toe with him. I told her to let it go and we’d deal with the hair fall-out later. She had no idea what she was up against.

Then, as we are seated waiting for Full Speed to finish weapons camp little T.Puzzle looks at me and declares, “I have to pee-pee.” This turned out to be a teachable moment. He in fact was in the process of peeing everywhere when he made this announcement.

“No, little T.Puzzle, you meant to say ‘Look at me everyone, I am peeing all over my chair, the walls, the floor and let’s not forget my shoes.” Okay, so I didn’t really say that but man, was I frustrated.

The lady sitting next to me says, “Looks like he was really saving up.”

Um, yeah.

I look in her direction and say, “I’ve got extra clothes in the truck.” I was kind of hoping that she would help out in some way. I mean I didn’t expect her to wipe up the pee, but maybe offer to go grab the clothes, or offer to watch little Frick while I ran to the truck? Or something? Anything? Anyone?

Nope. She looked at me like I was crazy with a ‘k’.

Super.

Suddenly, out of nowhere another mom swoops in with paper towels at the ready. She hands me towel after towel until the initial mess is somewhat controlled. She offers to care for the garbage and sends me to the truck with little T.Puzzle.  I get him cleaned-up and changed and when I return to the scene of the crime, she already has some cleaner on hand so I can properly disinfect the area.

And you know what? She didn’t think I was crazy one bit.

And you know why? She has three boys.

‘Nuff said.

bad day, children, mommyhood

One of Those Days

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I’m having one of those days that if I have to take care of one more need of someone other than myself, I could possibly spontaneously combust into angry flames (Mad Dog will vouch for my less-than-sunny demeanor).

I can’t handle another demand, another ‘poop-in-our-big-boy-underpants’ incident, or any other sentence that begins with ‘I need’ or ‘I want’.

Unless it’s my own sentence like the following: ‘I need a vacation’ or ‘I want a full-time nanny’.

Then, I might be onto something.

bad day, children, mommyhood, tantrums

Unlikable Days

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I don’t like to be the kind of Mom who fears living her life because the behavior of her child is so unpredictable. For better or worse I have always pushed forward even if I knew tantrums and embarrassment could be imminent. I have never had a period in my life that we stopped taking the boys to restaurants or on other public outings only to sit at home for months and months trying to out-wait their tantrum-prone/defiant phase. My boys are just too active to sit it out. I have to keep going. I admit, this second time around (as in raising little T.Puzzle), it’s harder and harder to find the motivation to keep doing so.

Little T.Puzzle pretends his colored goldfish are James, Percy and Henry the trains

I decided to give myself a break of sorts and didn’t take little T.Puzzle on any outings during the day. That is rather hard with a super-active, super-inquisitive little man to keep entertained all day. Eventually by day’s end, I knew I had to take him outside to do something. I landed on going to the park after we picked up big brother Full Speed from school.

As we pulled in the parking lot I told Little T.Puzzle what my expectations were. “You have to listen to Mommy at all times. If Full Speed needs to use the potty, you come with us immediately. If you decide not to listen you will lose many privileges for the evening. You will sleep alone (he loves to have big brother Full Speed sleep in his room with him), you will go to bed right after showers and there will be no treat and no tv show.”

They played for maybe ten minutes when big brother Full Speed announces he needs to use the bathroom. Little T.Puzzle ignores me when I tell him to come with us and proceeds to laugh at me because he know I can’t reach him. At least this time Full Speed was more prepared to potty on his own so it wasn’t as disastrous as it had been in the past (see ‘I’m Stunned’).

I somehow manage to get little T.Puzzle down from his safe haven of the top of the slide and I dropped the hammer. He went to his room when we got home until dinner was served. He went straight to bed alone after showers and he didn’t even have the privilege of a bedtime story. There were tears and angst (mostly my own) and little T.Puzzle screamed like a banshee at times, too (super-fun).

Motherhood is hard on the days when you question everything. Is my child beyond behavioral repair? What am I doing wrong? Why can’t my child listen to me? Why do even attempts at fun outings lead to disaster?

I guess that’s why love is such a powerful emotion. It trumps everything thank goodness; even the question-filled unlikable days of motherhood.