How many times have you read stories or heard speeches by people raised by single moms and they always say the same thing ” She worked day and night and somehow gave us everything we needed. She never complained”
My children will never say that about me.
I admire the image of these women but I am not one of them. I complain. I sigh emphatically. They hear my frustrations. I curse like a truck driver. I cry when I think I put their iPod through the washing machine for fear I will need to purchase another one. When they lose something tres chere, I fall apart inside. In the grand scheme it is silly but I am impulsive and a little explosive and sometimes my budget chokes the good humour out of me.
I was just forwarded one of those things that makes me feel a little short staffed. According to Maya Angelou “you can tell a lot about a woman by the way she handles these three things; a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled Christmas lights”
Well, all I can say is I like rain.
Oh Maya – I love rain too Nancy, and xmas lights are like a puzzle to solve…lost luggage – I’ll lose it. But I LOSE IT so much lately…I hate it – I’m making a conscious effort to try and chill the hell out these days….
I guess letting the 9 year old borrow the car was the first error!
Thanks for commenting- we are all the same on this:doing our best and human at once!
What a timely piece of writing. I lost it with my poor girl (9 yrs) yesterday morning because she lost my car keys and we spent an hour looking for them before I could drive her to the sitter’s and go to work. (When I see that written down, it seems so ordinary, but at the time it seemed like I was the *only* person in the history of the world who ever had to endure such torture. I guess I’m a drama mama.)
I’ve made the promise to myself that my real Christmas gift to my girls will be to lose my patience a little less frequently and suck it up a little more often. I want to complain enough to let them know how hard I work, but not so much that they don’t think they’re worth it.
Merry Christmas!
everyone’s crap is different, yes?!
tracey-you crack me up. must share bottle soon.
well done Jen! No surprise.
i’m happy to read this post and know i will, too, never be the “saintly” mother. i’m such a baby although i deal well with all of the above. it’s all the other crap i can’t deal with! 🙂
Nancy, I’m cursing along with you, woman. Sometimes when I’ve finished having a little cry about something, I say to myself, “Seriously, what’s the matter with you, Self? Get a hold of yourself for goodness sake…” And then I shake it off until the next time. But that Maya list? Yeah – I have a jaunty rain hat, I almost never travel, and I think I buy new Christmas lights every year, just to avoid that tangly mess.
Also, my wallet is almost always empty. Poo.
My 11yo son handed in an assignment last week on “extraordinary people”. He had to identify 3 famous people, and 3 people he knows who are extraordinary and say why. I had very conflicted emotions when I peeked at his work and saw that he’d identified me as extraordinary because I work all day and still make them dinner every night. Touched that he cares, but conflicted because obviously I don’t make this all look effortless. He knows how tough it is because on occasion I lose it and yell in frustration “you don’t know how hard it is to work all day and then come home and make dinner.” I guess he does know after all, and now I feel kind of sad about that. Motherhood…you can’t win!