A Better Mom

I learned a valuable lesson today while I was working at Josie's school. I helped Josie and her friends make cereal necklaces. I wiped their noses. I washed their hands. I read to them while they ate their snack. And I realized that when you are exhausted, your irritation and contempt for small children extends beyond your own.

For the last week, Josie has been sick. She hasn't slept and worst of all she won't wander more than 5 inches from me. I feel bad that she doesn't feel well but it's doesn't excuse her recent behavior.

"You took my juice!" she screamed from the couch while I walked into the kitchen to get her a snack and put her juice cup in the sink.

"It's right here," I yelled back. "Do you want it back?"

"Yeeessss." She said in a tone that sent chills down my spine as an image of her as a scantily clad teenager appeared in the window above the sink. "Bring it in HERE!" She screamed even louder in case I was dumb enough to think she was coming in the kitchen to get the juice herself.

Dealing with her all week put me in no mood for helping out at her school. Josie was smart enough to stay away from me. There was plenty to keep her busy and she recognized the look of irritability in my eyes as I pulled the belt on her car seat extra tight when I put her in the car.

It didn't help that it was picture day and the photographer wanted Josie to lie down on the freezing wet grass and smile while putting her arms behind her head. I didn't even try to help. I figured a photographer with such an inflated sense of creative vision deserved a good dose of Josie's defiant behavior.

After "cooperating" for the photo shoot all of the kids got a bag of candy. Even the good kids were running around throwing toys and screaming. You can only imagine what the bad kids were doing.

Bad-Boy-Brandon dumped a pile of sand directly on my feet as I was telling him to keep the sand in the sandbox, I breathed deeply and thought, I hate this kid too. It actually made me feel better that it's not only my own kids that drive me crazy on days like today. It may not make me seem like any less of a monster, but it definitely made me feel like a better mom.