Well, yesterday turned out to be the day that I was
That Mom.
Oh, you know her.
She doesn't come to the school assemblies.
Her kids don't have the supplies they need to make a picture frame out of recycled material.
The one who
lost her car rider line name tag for one of the kids....after a mere two weeks of school.
The flighty one who
laughs too loud and says things
without an edit button at inopportune times.
That would be me, folks.
Every nine weeks, our elementary school has what is known as a
Wildcatter Extravaganza. It is only for the
3-6th graders because I guess the
little kids aren't worthy of the praise and awards they would really be
stoked about unlike those
too cool 6th graders who could give a
rat's bum. The awards presented are basically Honor Roll awards, Perfect Attendance...
.you know the drill.
Well, let me just say that through the first two years of this whole Extravaganza...I assumed it was an in school celebration/brouhaha....like a pep rally for grades. And I also assumed that means that parents
did not attend.
Well, that is where
I was wrong.
Parents come.
And I wasn't one of them.
Luckily,
my kids understood and didn't really mind.
Of course, this could just be their way of letting me off the hook and then sending me their therapy bills later on down the road.
But what really
gets my goat is that I'm wondering what the
other parents think. What is wrong with me?!
Who cares what they think??
This is my daughter's
last year in elementary school.
Last. Year.
Then she moves on to the
God forsaken place known as Junior High. You know when you read that a shiver went through your body. And if junior high was a piece of cake to you may be the first to pin a rose on your nose. Like literally....
pin a rose on your nose.
Junior High is all pimples and
mean girls and more classes and
different lunches from your friends and
riding the bus which is a
special kind of hell.
But back on track......
I was going to attend all of the Wildcatter Extravaganzas this year because after that, there will
be no more.
Of course, there will still be End of the Year awards and such but nothing as
fluffy and happy as an EXTRAVAGANZA.
I have not been to one!
I have
missed three of these award assemblies already.
Slacker mom alert. Slacker mom alert.
I always tell myself on Friday, after seeing the super helpful reminder post from the school on their Facebook page, that
I will be there Monday. Very important. Do no forget.
And then
Monday rolls around.
Monday with all of it's
hot coffee, therapeutic laundry folding,
quiet house......
And I forget!!!
My brain is literally mush for some reason.
Do you want to know how I remembered.
Facebook.
Stupid Facebook. Because the parents who actually make it a point to
remember these things get to post pictures of their children winning these
wonderful awards. And then I
gasped and about dropped my coffee and then......
I cried. Because I felt like an
awful mother. And then my best friend sent me pictures of my sweet daughter receiving her awards because she is so stinking smart....
.I felt like a failure.
So, I come to terms with the fact that
I have messed up big time, again. And I move on with my day.
I sit down at the computer to
pull up a recipe for dinner and guess what I find?
The paper from Griff's Science teacher showing examples of all of the fun materials we can
send to class for them to make a
picture frame using all recycled or reclaimed materials!
Guess what the
deadline was for those materials.
Yep.
Monday.
UGH!
Seriously?!
I quickly checked his schedule on the fridge to see when his science class was.
Hours ago. That's when.
I went into
panic mode. Which always involves
cleaning for some reason. So I clean my bedroom. I clean out my dresser, ridding it of pajamas and crap that has been sitting in there for way too long. I cleaned off the dust magnet known as the top of the dresser where I
collected all of the buttons I could find and
squirreled them away in a glass jar....JUST in case his class decided to do the actual project on Tuesday and she was just giving that deadline because parents
can be slackers. But never me. :/
After cleaning the
entire room and
dusting everything in sight, I then went on to
bake cookies so the kids would have
nice, warm, chocolate chip cookies when they got home from school.
You know, because if your mom is going to be super crappy....it would be great if she could
at least make you cookies.
I drove on to the car rider line...with my
one sad name tag in the window because I lost Griffin's early on....
we've gone over this....
.I'm over the shame.
When Griffin gets in, I ask him how his day was.
Rhys luckily stayed after school for art practice with my best friend who happens to teach there...and she even took her to get a milkshake and fries afterwards...therefore helping me without knowing it.
I ask Griffin if they did their picture frame project today.....
I'm hoping and praying he says No.
Once again, I am wrong.
They totally did it.
I tell him
I'm so sorry, that it totally
slipped my mind this weekend to get his stuff together for the project. He assures me it's okay and acts like it's
no big deal. I tell him, trying to
save grace, that I found a
bunch of buttons because I was hoping that you wouldn't be doing the project until the next day. He tells me again that
it's fine. That I can just
save it for next year or even for the
next kid...which leads to a whole conversation about him wanting a little brother he can pick on....
not happening.
When we get home I
basically trip over him trying to
Vanna White the cookies I made for their
after school snack.
Once again, he's
unfazed.
I always make cookies.
But he's
happy.
As he
always is after school.
Although, I totally asked if other kids
forgot their supplies too....and he answered with
"Yeah, a LOT of us."...and I silently
sighed and felt like not such a horrible mother....because I'm not the ONLY ONE!
Hallelujah.
Not all of us are
perfect 100% of the time. And if you are....
you are a big, fat, stinking liar.
Sorry, that was harsh.
But for real!
I guess
maybe it wasn't such a big deal I forgot the supplies. How many times have I sent extra supplies? So, why does it bother me that Griff needed to use the "extras"?
Or maybe Rhys isn't permanently scarred because I blanked and didn't come to the assembly.
I'm a dang good mama.
I make sure my kids grow up in a
happy home.
We
laugh.
We eat good
food.
We
make fun of ourselves and each other.
We
adore our dogs like they are little people.
We love
music.
We love each other fiercely.
So, just to let you know....
.I'm with you.
Sometimes, we really screw up.
And sometimes,
we just are normal and forget things.
Or maybe we buy our children's approval with homemade chocolate chip cookies....you know...whatever your vice is.
Own it.
You are loved, man.
Sometimes, it's nice to hear that
you're normal.
Will your kids remember
family game nights, snuggling on the couch
watching movies together, impromptu date nights,
popcorn and apples for dinner....
yes! Of course, they will.
Will they remember the
one time you mess up out of the hundreds of
amazing things you are
purposeful and do with them
throughout their childhood?
No.
Breathe, Mama.
This too shall pass.
And I leave you with this....
we are all That Mom eventually. Heck, depending on the town you're in..
.maybe you're always That Mom.
The most
important thing is that you are the mom
God intended you to be for the kids He gave you. You might be a
little nutty....like me.
You may be super
Type A personality but living in a laid back city...
not me.
You just
might be the mom who makes it to everything because you actually write things down and
remember them.....and if you
are that mom I would really
appreciate a post it note my way,
my friend.
Here's to moms of all kinds.....may our
children be happy, our homes in
a little bit of disarray and
laughter forever in our
hearts....you are enough.
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| It's funny...because it's true. |
