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Monday, October 03, 2005

The good, the bad, and the ugly

These things I hate:
- when your staff member thinks that bad-mouthing you to anyone who will listen is an effective way of protecting her job
- when your daughter is reduced to tears while trying to do her homework because trying to remember French numbers makes her feel stupid, and tomorrow is Judgement Day when her teacher will test her and label her competent or incompetent
- when your other daughter comes home with reports of being bullied on the bus by mean-boy from across the street, and a bus driver who (apparently) turns a blind eye
- when your children fight ALL the way home, and you're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic so it takes twice as long to get home
- when you feel completely overwhelmed and perhaps even a little incompetent because your absence from the office for a week means that you are miles behind and your workload seems like an insurmountable mountain
- when it takes all evening for your kids to get through homework and piano practice and cleaning up after supper and packing their lunches, and you realize they have barely had a moment to JUST BE KIDS!
- when, after listening to demand after demand after demand, it occurs to you that your children see the world through self-centred lenses and the only communication out of their mouths seems to be some version of "Me, Me, Me"
- when you look at the diminishing pan of brownies and realize that, at the end of a long and stressful day, you've turned to food for comfort

These things I like:
- when your wonderful husband realizes you've had a stressful day and makes sure supper is waiting for you in the oven, even though he has an evening class and it's your night to cook supper
- when you emerge from a self-imposed timeout in your bedroom and find your daughters clearing the supper table even though they haven't been reminded, and you consider that possibly they DO have a shred of conscience after all
- when you realize that tomorrow night you get to go to a concert and that your ROCKIN' brother-in-law is willing to babysit
- when you watch your three-year-old daughter dance around naked waving a pom-pom just like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and you realize that a good laugh cures a lot of ills
- when you sit down to relax at the end of a LONG day and realize you can do it guilt free because the dishes are done, the laundry is clean and put away, the floor is swept and vacuumed (at least upstairs), the housework is basically caught up, and even your sink is shiny and clean.

7 comments:

ccap said...

The Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders cheer naked? I had no idea! No wonder J-L likes sports so much. ;-)

mmichele said...

i'm so glad i read to the bottom of that post and so glad the day improved.

Linda said...

I'm glad that you can look at the positive stuff too. It's not always easy to do that when you've had a tough day. And "the dishes are done, the laundry is clean and put away, the floor is swept and vacuumed (at least upstairs), the housework is basically caught up, and even your sink is shiny and clean." Now that's an accomplishment!

Anvilcloud said...

I presume that your self-imposed timeout had to do with peaceful escape and not with something naughty that you had done?

Heather Plett said...

AC - the self-imposed timeout was about trying to ensure I DIDN'T do something naughty :-)

Dale said...

This, to me, is the best thing about blogs. You are so ... normal, Heather. So human. Aren't we all alike? I'm glad you found the happy ending!

Cuppa said...

If your sink is shiny, you are way ahead of the game hunny. Now it is time to relax, so go make yourself a cup of tea, and put your feet up for awhile. Ahhh, now that is good.