It's not easy trying to "have it all". Not that it's easy being a stay at home parent - I know that presents it's own set of challenges. But I can only speak to mine.
When both parents work (or you're a single working parent) it's hard because you have your full time job and then there's all the kid stuff and house stuff on top of that. I basically take care of the kid schedule stuff. I pack lunch, make sure I know when the special theme days are for school, keep track of what days we need to be where for activities. In general, I think I do a pretty darn good job, especially given that being organized does not come naturally to me.
Every day at the summer program they either go on a field trip or have a special theme day at the school. I looked at the calendar and got all Gavin's gear together for "wacky water day". Which was great until we got to school and it was "super hero day". I had looked at the wrong date on the calendar. I looked at Gavin and said "we don't really have super hero gear anyway". To which he replied "my power rangers outfit from Halloween".
Crap, crap, crap. One look in his eyes and I could see how important it was to him. I had 15 minutes to get home, find the outfit, and get back to school before he went off to class. I knew he'd freak out if he didn't actually see me return with the costume. Got home, found the costumer, found the mask (whew! i knew where the outfit was, but wasn't sure the mask was with it - see, unorganized). On the other hand it's due to my unorganization that the costumer (from last october) was still thrown on the top shelf of his closet and not down in the basement in a random, probably unlabeled tote. But I can't find the power rangers logo thing that goes on the belt. I decide to risk it and head back to school.
I got back with 5 minutes to spare only to find Gavin sitting at a table all by himself crying his eyes out! When I asked what was wrong, he said "I didn't think you were coming back".
One of the counselors was coming around gathering up kids for the reading class review, so I had him pull it together and told him his costume would be in his backpack for when he was done.
I headed to work feeling horrible. When had I let him down before that he would ever doubt that I was coming back (when I said I would be back with the costume)? Plenty of people will let him down in his lifetime, he should never expect me to be one of them!
But, even SuperMom fails from time to time, I suppose. He was happy when I picked him up and has been so good this evening, so I can only assume he had a good day (inquiries about his day usually yield a response of "i don't remember").
And then, just now, I looked over on the counter and caught a glimpse of a piece of paper Gavin had been writing on. SuperMom's can't fail with boys that write this:
"Momee yor the best"
1 comment:
And there you were, a puddle on the floor. Working or not, being a mom is tough. Been both and still couldn't say one is easier than the other. And this is definitely a success : )
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