When my kids are moody and cranky, my motherhood chops are put to the test. These long, difficult days usually make me contemplate whether to pull out my hair (make the whining stop!) or pat myself on the back (I didn’t hurl them out a window!).
For the most part, the physically hardest bits of parenting are over. The night feeding, diaper changing, and toddler chasing days are long behind me. I realize the emotional and psychological torture of child rearing is only just beginning, but it’s a relief to no longer have to hold a crying thirty-pound child in one arm while simultaneously flipping a grilled cheese sandwich and wiping a butt with the other, so let me have this moment, okay?
Even so, at just six and almost four years old, my boys occasionally hold my feet to the fire, and yesterday was one of those days. From the moment they woke up to the moment before their tired eyes finally closed at bedtime, there was extreme whining; unexpected tantrums; unbearable clinginess; unnecessary (and inappropriate) screaming; countless failed television, toy, and couch negotiations; unwarranted violence, including, but not limited to, pushing, hitting, and headbutting (yes, headbutting); and relentless crying. Oh the crying! Even Dylan admits he had “crying-itis” yesterday. (He made that up all on his own. I swear.)
There was no school and Mike had an evening work event, so the Crazy was all mine. All day. If yesterday were a test, I’m pretty sure I failed miserably, but it was definitely valuable professional development. And the feeling I had when I finally got the crazy monkeys to sleep was a cocktail of exhaustion, relief, and pride of accomplishment. It was kind of how I felt when I woke up after my colonoscopy. (Oh, and I had an actual cocktail, too.)
Thankfully, today was a new day marked more by laughter than anything else. That, and I went to the theater with my in-laws to see “Agatha Christie’s the BBC Murders” (without the crazy monkeys).
What did you do today?
The Runaway Mama by Jen Gregory 