so adam was gone the week before halloween. he left me home alone with three kids and late nights. and halloween costumes. and homecoming dances. and early mornings. and places to go and things to do and food to cook and bathrooms to clean and everyone who needs everything at this exact moment and all from someone named “mom” (who is this “mom” that you speak of?). so i decided this was what our pumpkins should look like...
maxx and rosie executed my “vision” perfectly. and by “vision” i mean” emotional state of mind”.
and then adam came home for one night (monday night). and then he left again tonight for another meeting. and meanwhile that “mother” pumpkin will begin to rot and stink and it will represent me in some even more primal ways.
especially tonight because today i was complaining to myself that it was tuesday and it was bathroom cleaning day and i had NO TIME TO CLEAN THE BATHROOMS. and i didn’t clean them. but then millie and maxx (and mostly adam) gave me an extra two hours in which i could clean the bathrooms (and write three blog posts so don’t come over and actually check the bathrooms out too closely.)
see millie wanted to go to a concert tonight. yes, on a school night. i am WELL AWARE that it is a school night. i am the FIRST one up on school mornings. i am painfully aware of that fact. and she needed maxx to go with her because all of her other friends have smarter parents who don’t allow this kind of foolishness. well, really to be honest it wasn’t my call. i was the smarter parent (actually i was the parent who wanted to go to bed at 9:00 tonight and didn’t want to wait up for concert goers...) since adam was home for a scant 18 hours, i consulted him because he is the go-to parent who makes the iffy calls (i am the bathroom cleaning, dinner making, car driving, go to bed early, always so “no” to anything involving late nights and indie bands). fully thinking he would realize that since he wouldn’t be home tonight that it would be ME waiting up. fully aware that he knows that i don’t “wait up” well. but he must have realized that it would give me that extra time that i needed to clean the bathrooms. he must have heard me complaining to myself about my lack of bathroom cleaning time. i know he has secret cameras up in the house. they must have secret microphones. note to self... no more complaining about not having time for cleaning. pretend to be cleaning.
so he let them go to the concert. and just in the nick of time some other foolish parent let her son go. and this kid is a friend of millie’s (since foolishness hangs out together as do children of foolish parents. which reminds me to make some wiser friends) and so there were now 2 boys going with millie (maxx being the other one) and that seemed safer to me. but still not any earlier. so i am waiting up for them 2 hours (actually 3 hours) after i really wanted to be in bed. which gives me plenty of bathroom cleaning time. yay.
go on and judge me if you want to for having kids that go to concerts on school nights. indie band concerts. that don’t start until 9:30 (which is 30 minutes after my perfect bedtime). i have judged myself all evening whilst smelling in the bleach and scrubbing the toilets. because i am not the mom i thought i would be. i have repented of every time i judged some mom with teenagers and said, “i would NEVER let my kids _____________________ ”, (insert things like “go out to a concert on a school night”). and i am not always the mom my kids want me to be (which is why they have a dad who lets them go out on a school night). i am hardly up to being what they need me to be (especially when i am tired and cranky). but i am the mom that God gave them. and i pray that will be enough. what i lack in “stay-up-ability” i try to make up in “pray-up-ability”. because you can pray while laying down. on the couch. waiting up late. it is really the best thing to do. after you clean bathrooms and blog. of course.
and if me being the praying mom isn’t enough then i can always go all pumpkin on them...
need some BETTER advice about raising teens? because i hope that you realize that I GOT NOTHING FOR YOU (should i let them go to concerts or make them stay home and clean bathrooms for you, I DON’T KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!) try this site... she has a 31 days of parenting tweens and teens series of posts... all i got is the faint idea that i am most likely doing EVERYTHING in this book... but at least i am doing it with skill. and clean bathrooms.