there are certainly a number of things i do well. i won’t deny this. i am, after all, quite Fabulous. There are, however, many a thing i do, well, not so well.
the day trip is one of them.
the pack your kids up at 8:00 am, bring everything you need for the day. lunch, snacks, drinks etc. the spending the day somewhere. the not getting home until 8:00 pm. i don’t do this well. my kids don’t really do it well either. they have a threshold, and once we are past it, it’s not enjoyable for anyone.
yesterday i had the two girls. my sister in law, god bless her, agreed to take josh for the entire weekend (friday evening until sunday evening) so with the husband out of town, i was on my own with the two. not wanting to sit on my ass all day, i napped isabella in the morning and played webkinz with Emily while she slept (sadly, i’m a genuis at the color storm game…so we play a lot of that so Emily can rack up the points. is it cheating?). then i took the girls for sushi. Isabella ate about 150 edammames and Emily ate about 10 rolls of sushi. it was GREAT.
and then we were going to meet up with the usuals at this water park/park for a bit. i got us all into bathing suits, got some snacks and drinks and waited. we were supposed to meet everyone at 2 (but my friends are all late. always) so we went to the mall to try to find a bathing suit for poor Emily, who is still wearing her size 4’s. (where we ran into Haley and Josh 0 and their monkey! fun!) and waited some more. and finally decided at 2:45 to just head over there.
tova and fry showed up about 20 minutes later and jack and ilana didn’t show up at all. but, isabella and Emily had a GREAT time.
for an hour.
isabella was done.
emily was done.
and i was done.
i felt a little bit like a failure. good moms would have been at the park at 10…with a picnic lunch in tow…and blankets and pop-up chairs and coolers. i was there with the wrong drinks, the wrong snacks, the wrong sunscreen.
the girls had a great time, though. we had some great quality time together. we laughed and ran around and played and got wet and climbed. and we did lunch, and the mall, and the park. it wasn’t like we sat at home in front of the tv. we didn’t watch a single minute of tv the whole day, actually.
i would consider it a successful day.
but somehow i just feel like other moms wouldn’t think so!
Sounds like it was a GREAT day to me!! You had a GDO! Girl’s Day Out! And, you got to see MOI! And, the cheaty monkey HERSELF! 😉 hee.
By the way, I sooo want to try your hairdresser. When I’m ready, i.e., in 6 months, when this hair grows to a decent length! I’ll get the deets.
i’m with you…i never pack enough stuff, and since my youngest was 4 months old even stopped taking diaper bags. i live in a small enough town that my philosophy is that once we start needing things like diaper changes/clothes changes/major food and drink breaks, etc., that it is time to go home. granted, i’m never the mom with useful little ziplocs of goldfish crackers, but I swear that has taught my kids better eating habits!!
ali…you ‘da bomb! you are always so fun, loving, easy-going, and understanding. always. always. always. you rock girl! 🙂
Ali, nobody ever has it together all the time. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. So one day I may manage to get everyone packed up and I’ll remember the fold-up chairs and picnic blanket and pack a great picnic that everyone loves and my kids will play for hours. Other days I’ll be 45 minutes late, forget bathing suits or sunscreen or hats and pack a snack my kids hate. Then I’ll look at the other families who “have it together” and be jealous. But really, it’s just their lucky day. Next time they’ll be the ones who show up without a change of clothes and their 4-year old will poo his pants!
Sounds like a great girls day out… I bet your kids think so too. Wasn’t that the point? I think we all feel inadequate, even the ones that *appear* to have it together. 🙂
tova – – – it wasn’t an attack on you! 100%! i’m not a late person – but i understand people who are. most of my friends are. all of my best friends are. and by taking it into account, i can plan accordingly.
my point was that MY kids have a threshold of only so long so i decided to go ahead and just go. i felt bad leaving early…but the kids were done.
it’s like when you fly. if your flight is at a certain time, you schedule your kids around that. nap them at a certain time, so they will be best behaved at a certain time. but if you are delayed…the kids pass over that time and enter into psycho zone.
you are really lucky that NOah is an AMAZING go-with- the-flow kind of kid (i’m so jealous) but my kids aren’t.
where was i going with this…anyway, this was a really long comment to tell that i don’t care if you guys are late…and that wasn’t the point of the post :):)
if you feel a sense of accomplishment and pride, then the day was totally sucessful. what who knows, maybe small successes will lead to something even greater.
i can understand your frustration about wanting to do things at the agreed upon time…but the thing is, planning a day with friends does have it’s drawbacks…there are other parents, kids, and issues that arise that can’t always be controled…and often delay an outing. but to me, the pros of hanging with friends always outways the cons of not doing things at the exact time you would have done it, had you done it alone. always. so on behalf of us, who are often (not always!!) late…thanks for waiting! And we luv you!! 🙂
Sounds like a successful day to me. I too get frustrated with all the advance preparations for a day out. The problem with snacks is that your kids will ALWAYS want what the other kids are having, not your own snacks. Then, with my son, he just wants to sit and eat the whole time – forget playing on the playground, building things in the sand or running through the waterpark. Drives me mental that we just sit and snack the entire time. Makes me wonder why I bothered packing everything up when we just could have stayed home. Of course, staying home just leads to stir crazy kids so it’s a no-win situation. Ultimately, I think my kids are better for getting out and doing something – even it it’s just for an hour to the park.
sounds good to me! whenever we do plan these all day affair trips, i inevitably forget SOMETHING – camera, pacifier, etc. i figure as long as we all make it back home together, it was a success.
You’re right that other moms may not consider *just* an hour at the waterpark/park successful. However, I bet their kids would.
As a mom of a child who, when he hits that point there is no turning back, I can tell you that it’s what the kid thinks of as successful that makes it a great day.
On Friday I’m taking Matt on vacation (we’ll meet my family there, but we all do our own things during the day). I learned last year that you have to go at their pace. Admittedly we probably won’t get through all the activities I want to, and feel he would like.
But, I’ll think it’s a success even if it means going to Ben & Jerry’s Every. Single. Day (like, what’s not to love about that anyway).