Friday, May 1, 2009

The Mommy Confessional: "Let them eat cake!" Edition

When Nick was was younger (and by that I mean waaaaay back when he was two and three) he was a late sleeper. Not a morning person myself, it was awesome that he (and then Will) would snooze until 8 or 8:30.

Sinfully late by most people's kid standards.

But when Jay was working second shift, he'd get home around 12:30/1:00 in the morning, so by keeping them up just a wee bit later they'd sleep until 8ish so that he could get a decent amount of sleep.

I can't say whether their new shift to wake earlier has come as part of the slight chaos that hubby's new work schedule has caused to our routine, or just because Nick's getting older and needs less sleep, but its commonplace for him to wake around 7, sometimes earlier.

Only when he does, he wakes his brother, too, and more often than not, 7 am is too damn early for either of them to be awake.

This is painfully obvious around 11:30 when they're both ugly and crying and constantly at each other's throats.

And naptime is still HOURS away.

Now that Jay has weekend's where, at 7 am, he's long since started his shift at work, this also means Mommy gets no happy weekend sleep-in time.

POO.

So imagine my lovely surprise to hear Nick get up to use the bathroom this past Saturday (clock check: 6:50 am) and then hear him go back to his room. Followed by quiet.

No giggling, no rough-housing, no "MOOOM! HE'S TOUCHING MY EARS!!!"

Silence. Lovely, lovely silence.

So a snoozin' I did go.

Much later, I woke to those familiar giggling sounds, backed by the murmur of the TV tuned to Noggin. (Yes, my four year old knows that channel 10 is PBS and 301 is Noggin so they no longer sit in the mornings watching the news or some completely inappropriate show on whatever channel the TV happened to be tuned to last. Clock check: 8:10 am. Momma's happy.)

I stretch, yawn, and make my way to the living room.

Where I find my cherubic young lads eating an entire box of Girl Scout cookies.

Don't say they're not resourceful - Daddy left the box out on the kitchen counter where only a chair was needed to retrieve them. Why wake Mom for breakfast when you can gorge yourself on chocolate covered Thanks-a-lots?

To award them for their skillfulness and ability to care for themselves (cuz, dood, I know 20-year-olds who can't do that) I thanked them for that extra hour of sleep and just handed them each a cup of milk to go with their cookies.

Besides...I didn't have to cook breakfast.


SO - share with me again. What did YOU do this past week that was "Mom of the Year" worthy? Leave a comment with your snafu and this week you could win a (slightly used) copy of Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner. Which you can read while you let your kids watch "just one more show".
And yes, we'll probably laugh at your gaff, but that's the point. None of us are perfect, but we're still good Mommies.

Damn good.


Last week's winner was Kelly:

I too left a bag of groceries sitting out over night. Only, my bag included the bologna for the kids lunches the next day. I sent my kids to bed at 6:30 one night because I had just had enough for the day. They asked me 3 times why they
had to go to bed during the daytime. Also, I let them dig a hole "to China" in
the driveway (my husband's gonna freak) so that I could get enough quiet time to
answer a few emails. June Cleaver, I am not!!


I love that Kelly's kids are so adventurous as to want to get to China. Kelly, email me so I can get you your prize!!!

This contest closes next Friday, May 8th.

11 comments:

Candid Carrie said...

Gee, I have phucked up so much stuff this week, most of it on the way to therapy. Or right after therapy. Or during theraphy. Let me think about this one! I'll get back to you when I have it down to two hundred words or less.

Suzie said...

Wow my kids are 5am risers and as they do horrible things to each other if left alone. My son put the baby in a suitcase zipped it and banged her up and down the stairs I get up every morn at 5am.

Denise said...

Our kitchen faucet broke on Monday. On Tuesday I ran out and bought a new one ... it was the wrong size. On Wednesday I got a second new one and hubby put it in for me .... but our plumbing connetions were about 1/2" too short, so he couldn't hook it up. On Thursday I took my sick little boy, dosed him up with Tylenol, and made him go out to Home Depot with me to get new connectors. He was so miserable he fell asleep. In the cart. Sitting up. Drool coming out of his mouth. I would've taken a pic with my camera phone, but I couldn't see because of the tears in my eyes. I felt like such an awful mom. And I'm sorry to everyone that was at Home Depot yesterday and was exposed to my son. But I had to get water back in my kitchen! And I did wipe the cart handles down with a sanitizer wipe when we were back at the car.

Secret Mom Thoughts said...

Well there are so many things to confess to every week. I'll confess to what I did today. I'm feeling under the weather but had to go grocery shopping. I let my kids eat 2 slices of cheese each and split a half a bag of rice cakes. It keep them well behaved for the trip and I didn't have to feed them much lunch.

Unknown said...

Me? I left the Tupperware container with the left over Sloppy Joe out all night. Had to be disposed of. SWMBO was NOT amused.

Anonymous said...

I love how your dudes can totally fend for themselves;)

Tara R. said...

With my teens instead of cookies, it would have been cold pizza or left over Chinese. We still get all the essential food groups!

My faux pas was while shuffling stuff in the freezer out in the garage, I left a package of frozen pasta on top of the freezer to make room, then forgot I left it there. Hubs asks 'did you mean to do this?' Yeah, I meant to do it!

maggie said...

Cookies for breakfast rock. Girl Scout cookies for breakfast take it to a whole new level. Someone bringing you a glass of milk for dunking is like all that plus the cherry on top. :)

Zoeyjane said...

Sounds like you're a perfect mom, to me. ;)

Now, this isn't a one-off, so I dunno if it counts, but: I've taught Isobel that regardless of what time she wakes up at, she is allowed to grab some toys or books and play until she is bored to death - THEN she can wake me (unless she's hungry or has to pee).

She's so good at it, she's right beside me while she's doing it, and regardless of when she woke, I get to sleep until at least 8am everyday. (and I'm a light sleeper!)

Kimberly said...

I needed some "me" time, so I let the kids play in their rooms while I chilled out in my room. The door was open, but the baby gate was up to keep them out. 30 mins later it was too quiet. My 3 year old had drawn all over his 1 year old sister with markers. He had also drawn all over our laminate floors. Thank goodness he didn't get to the walls.

Ms. Candice said...

I do this daily, so nothing really comes to mind. I think that is the plight of blogger moms...we always need just 5 more minutes of "me" time!