This is me...

This is me...
I'm having a mom moment....

Friday, April 22, 2011

I LOVE My Kids. So Back Off.

I have gotten 2 wall posts on Facebook and 3 emails complaining about the fact that I did not have my blog posted by 8:00 this morning.  There was no school today in honor of Good Friday.  I slept until nearly 11:00 so sue me.  But, here it is...better late than never.


In the hypercritical email that I got a couple of days ago, this woman suggested to me that I "shouldn't have had kids" since I "obviously don't like them."  Let me explain something:  I LOVE MY KIDS.  My kids are awesome.  They make me laugh every day.  They are the reason I get out of bed every morning.  I would do anything for them.  And they drive me absolutely insane.

This is the plight of all mothers -- we teeter between loving them so much it hurts and being so mad that we want to hurt them.  There are many times that they do or say things that are so incredibly touching and sweet that it nearly brings me to tears and then there are things that they do to my house, to each other, and to themselves that literally make me cry.  And not EVERYTHING that they do is a mess -- Lorelei will come and sit beside me while I am working on my blog or screwing around on Facebook and say "I love you Momma.  You make my heart super happy" and Jackson will grab my leg while I'm making dinner and say "I love you Momma!  I NEVER let you go."  William will still let me give him a hug and kiss before bed despite the fact that I KNOW it makes him cringe because he is 9.  And Bella, who is just like me (bless her heart), will come and try to cuddle with me and make me insane gifts of affection out of bendy straws and thumbtacks.

I've had other well-meaning moms tell me that I need to learn to appreciate the little things and find the beauty in the things that they do.  I can find the beauty in MANY things.  Like when they wrote out their welcome message for my parents in Bendaroos or when they used no less than 46 pieces of paper to make me a Happy Mother's Day sign.  Or when they wrote "My mom rocks!" on the wall with a "Washable" marker and made me breakfast in bed consisting of 2 Eggos and an entire bottle of syrup....that dripped off of the plate allllllll the way down the hallway and onto my sheets and into my hair as they stood beside my head trying to wake me up.  But if you can look at the carpet in the upstairs portion of my house and tell me that I should appreciate their use of color and symmetry and not get mad at them, then YOU are clearly a better mom than I am. And your Xanex prescription might need some tweaking.

If you want to know how much I love my kids, just try to do something that I perceive as a threat or just being mean.  My inner "Mama Bear" will come out and you will be sorry.  As much as I dislike conflict, I will get all conflicty up on you if you in anyway come close to what I perceive as an attempt to attack, harass, mistreat, or in any other way discriminate against my kids.

Do they drive me nuts?  Daily.  Does that mean that I don't love them?  Absolutely not.  It means that they are normal.  And so am I.

4 comments:

Michelle Watson said...

Totally normal and your post make me feel normal too. I lovingly want to strangle my boys one minute and before I let them out of my deathly grip I want to embrace them with a hug....we are normal!

Brooke said...

EXACTLY what Michelle said ;) The problem with those who chose to criticize other Mommies is that they're insecure in their abilities, so they feel they need to discriminate in order to make themselves feel better. Let the haters do what they do best, and you do what you do best ;) (Make fun of them!)

Unknown said...

Tonight as we got ready for Good Friday service church, I was practically bi-polar: " You look so handsome! Thank you for getting dressed quickly." If you persist in rubbing ketchup in your hair, I will whip your bottom!" At church:"(In whispers) You are doing such a good job being still and coloring" "Draw on your face in marker again and i will whip your bottom!"
I am fairly sure they are purposelytrying to make us insane.
And for the haters: no I don't actually whip bottoms. It is a fantastic threat though and how the kids know they are facing big trouble.

Forever in Bluejeans said...

Usually when people criticize it isn't about "you" its about them.