I've been a little stressed lately. I know I said in my recent post that I am getting thicker skin and letting criticism roll off my back. I was full of crap. It drives me nuts. There is a profound difference, I have discovered, between "letting it go" and stuffing it down. Here all this time, I have assumed I am letting the negative comments about my parenting or my kids go, but in reality I have been stuffing it. Stuffing it deep deep down. And the other day....it blew.
I was at the grocery store. I had been particularly irresponsible and went to see a movie in the morning when I would usually do my shopping and decided to take both of my boys to the store with me after school. Dum dum dum!!!
This is a stressful event. It is stressful with an average preschooler most often, but with MY lovable ball of wonderfulness, it is an exquisite challenge. For his credit, Stinky was having a pretty good day. He was somewhere on the spectrum of typical 3 year old obnoxiousness, but not much more.
He was loud. He likes to hear his voice in big, open rooms. Heck. Maybe I would like to do that too sometimes. He would grab bags of cookies occasionally and holler, "I want these!!!". Truthfully, I want to do that myself. I can see me, walking down the candy aisle, grabbing a box of Milk Duds and screaming, "I want to eat these!!!!" to some unsuspecting fellow shopper. Oh, the constraints of politeness and adulthood...
By the time we were at the deli counter, Stinky was flicking at my last nerve. He was just busy. Jumping up and down, pressing his face up against the glass and ogling the cheeses. He stepped back suddenly and bumped his head on the cart of an old lady. He began to cry.
I tried quickly to soothe him, and then looked at the lady and said, "Stinky, you need to say excuse me." He was very preoccupied with the bump on his head. All the while, Boo is hollering his head off, absolutely DONE with sitting in the cart and ready to tear open some Cookies.
The lady then walks past me and in her very best holier than thou tone informed me, "You KNOW....you do have to WATCH them."
I felt a bubbling sensation. A violent shaking from deep within. I was sweating and my heart was racing from the stress of the day and them BLAM!!!!
I lost it at the old lady. "I AM watching them!!!! What do you THINK I am doing?
I am here with 2 kids under 4 and I just need to get FOOD!!!!" I went on a little more. My chest heaving....my eyes glaring.
She looked incredibly taken aback. Nobody back talks THAT generation. She quickly skulked off.
I noticed that no one at the deli counter would look me in the eye. Isn't it amazing that some little old lady is rude to me, and in an effort to defend myself I become the bad guy? Do you know how many other little old ladies I have just smiled politely at and moved on. She got me on the wrong day.
What I SHOULD have said is "Oh ma'am, we're just getting started. Next we are going to drive drunk, run with scissors and all the while wearing dirty underpants!"
I was at the grocery store. I had been particularly irresponsible and went to see a movie in the morning when I would usually do my shopping and decided to take both of my boys to the store with me after school. Dum dum dum!!!
This is a stressful event. It is stressful with an average preschooler most often, but with MY lovable ball of wonderfulness, it is an exquisite challenge. For his credit, Stinky was having a pretty good day. He was somewhere on the spectrum of typical 3 year old obnoxiousness, but not much more.
He was loud. He likes to hear his voice in big, open rooms. Heck. Maybe I would like to do that too sometimes. He would grab bags of cookies occasionally and holler, "I want these!!!". Truthfully, I want to do that myself. I can see me, walking down the candy aisle, grabbing a box of Milk Duds and screaming, "I want to eat these!!!!" to some unsuspecting fellow shopper. Oh, the constraints of politeness and adulthood...
By the time we were at the deli counter, Stinky was flicking at my last nerve. He was just busy. Jumping up and down, pressing his face up against the glass and ogling the cheeses. He stepped back suddenly and bumped his head on the cart of an old lady. He began to cry.
I tried quickly to soothe him, and then looked at the lady and said, "Stinky, you need to say excuse me." He was very preoccupied with the bump on his head. All the while, Boo is hollering his head off, absolutely DONE with sitting in the cart and ready to tear open some Cookies.
The lady then walks past me and in her very best holier than thou tone informed me, "You KNOW....you do have to WATCH them."
I felt a bubbling sensation. A violent shaking from deep within. I was sweating and my heart was racing from the stress of the day and them BLAM!!!!
I lost it at the old lady. "I AM watching them!!!! What do you THINK I am doing?
I am here with 2 kids under 4 and I just need to get FOOD!!!!" I went on a little more. My chest heaving....my eyes glaring.
She looked incredibly taken aback. Nobody back talks THAT generation. She quickly skulked off.
I noticed that no one at the deli counter would look me in the eye. Isn't it amazing that some little old lady is rude to me, and in an effort to defend myself I become the bad guy? Do you know how many other little old ladies I have just smiled politely at and moved on. She got me on the wrong day.
What I SHOULD have said is "Oh ma'am, we're just getting started. Next we are going to drive drunk, run with scissors and all the while wearing dirty underpants!"
