I am not qualified for this
Seriously. No one checked to see that I was even-tempered. No one asked if I could keep my patience while two children whined in my ears and my mother-in-law chattered away right through bathtime. No one ever asked to hear how clearly I read aloud, whether I approved of Disney Pooh, grape soda or whether I intended to bathe my children. Ever. Nooooo. Clearly we are programmed to reproduce whatever the indications are to the contrary.
Still, I have accepted the regular duties of parenting. I will cook chicken, wipe bottoms, set limits. I will breathe deeply, apologize when I am wrong. I will bake with the children. Take them places. Read books. Build towers.
But then there are days which I am simply not qualified to undergo. Days that would require the patience of a saint, the grace of a Buddha. Days that need the insight of a very well trained developmental psychologist. Days that need magic to make them anything but horrendous.
We’ve had too many of those and I am rethinking my current occupation. I am pretty certain that I would be far more cheerful at a nice dinner party with one too many glasses of wine and friends who learned many years ago not to whine, throw cereal on the floor or accuse me of not bringing them up well enough.
How is that somehow you and I are living parrallel lives?
I totally totally relate
my son tells me he is just doing his job when he is annoying. he is a perfectionist and focused around this work of his. a child psychologist told me he is the buddha. i choose NOT to tell him!
I love your name as it fits… jumping through hoops of fire some days it seems….if only in the mind.
I’m not entirely sure I understand the concept of ‘one too many glasses of wine’ but I can sense your frustration.
Oh, do I know what you’re talking about.
I have days when I’m ready to run away and live in a yurt. or a tree. Or a shack someplace by the sea, with thousands of books, cats and endless bottles of booze.
Its the repetitive board book reading and general cheekiness (clapping and saying “Good job!” when he does something obviously bad) that gets me after awhile. I’m sure I have a lot to look forward to……
(smugly) My youngest is having is 18th birthday party tomorrow!
Oh I hear you, I definitely hear you. The problem is most adults do whine or cry or stomp their feet.
Seriously. You’re overqualified. You need a bonus (or five). You need a drink or five. You need a mom vacation. desperately.
would you like a knitters’ retreat? we could all meet in charleston, NC, and rent a beachfront cabin, and knit, and sip champagne before breakfast, and simply NOT throw any cereal anywhere.
when you return home, your children will have come back to replace the trolls you left behind.
i’m sorry you are having a difficult time (day/month/season). School is coming. School IS coming.
A-freakin’-men.
If I had applied for the job, no one would have hired me. But I do the job best as I can. Temper and all.
Come to my house for dinner, we’ll serve up a bunch of wine and my bigger kids will entertain yours (for pay) and all will be well!
Having safely negotiated motherhood (four kids in seven years), I can look back on that time from the vantage point of a grandmother and tell you with confidence (and no little nostalgia) that “this, too, shall pass.” Perhaps all adults should be made to read Calvin and Hobbes in preparation for parenthood -
Oh, I know all too well what you’re talking about. Oh yes.
I am lifting my wine glass to you right now. Salud.