School Days

 

You know there are several different kinds of mothers.

• Mothers who start counting down to the first day of school the day school gets out for the summer.
• Mothers who get to August 1 and are at the end of their rope and can hardly contain themselves.
• Mothers who leave their kids on the schoolhouse steps and never look back.
• Mothers who get knots in their stomach at the idea of leaving their kids all day.
• Mothers who don’t want to be alone, therefore hate leaving their kids at school all day.

Me-I am a combination of all these.

I don’t countdown the days, but by the end of the summer my kids need to separated.  From each other and me! I know that they need the social aspects of school just as much as they need the education. We go to a smallish Christian school, I leave them knowing they are in a great surrounded by people that love them and want the best for them.

How about you?

Which kind of Mother are you?

Because I'm the Mom thats why!

The words..."Because I am the mom, that's why"! Never get me anywhere with my kids. Now, don't think I don't use it from time to time, usually when I am to lazy to explain myself or take a different approach.

Here is my question to you. Do you ummm......there is no nice way to say this. Bribe your kids? I totally do. We could call it negotiation, but even if we give it a pretty word its bribery.

Its a tool.
A very valuable tool.
Used in the right way, it makes my life easier.

Here is a recent example that comes to mind....

My four-teen year old daughter wants a Ralph Lauren swimsuit with little embroidered ponies on it. Umm...no! Not gonna spend $145 on 2 teenie little piece of fabric. Fast forward 6 weeks to our vacation, we pop over to the Ralph Lauren outlet at the last minute to "grab" something appropriate to wear for beach photographs. You know how good photos look on the beach when everyone is wearing the same color. Shopping with an almost fif-teen and almost twelve year old trying to get them to agree on ANYTHING is next to impossible!!

I digress.
often.
sorry.

Little missy spots above mentioned swimsuit from across the store on the clearance rack. She tried it on, of course it is adorable. At this point I have been sucked in. So, I put on my poker face and act like there is noooo way this swimsuit is coming home with me. Take a look at the price tag. $39.99!

HA done deal.
Must.keep.poker.face.on.

After we leave the fitting room, I make a show of putting the swimsuit back and tell them we need to get back on track. What are we wearing for the pictures?? More discord in the middle of the store. Finally I look at the big girl and say. "I will buy you that swimsuit, IF you wear whatever I want you to wear for the picture" She didn't even have to think about it! OK-she is all the sudden the happiest kid at the mall! My younger daughter, couldn't be bought that day.... :( We went to 4 different stores looking for something....came up with nothing. Finally, I gave up.

We end up wearing clothes we all had, in our suitcases. A quick load of laundry, I think the pics turned out cute.

Santa Rosa Beach

August 1-8, 2009

(excuse my squinting, the sun was killing my eyes)

I'm invisible

Well--you can't see me can you??

invisible-incapable by nature of being seen; inaccessible to view

After a week of a fabulous vacation with my biggest concern being whether or not the kids were sunscreened, it seems as if I have new concepts to ponder. And this concept of invisibility, not a good one. This morning I needed to run a quick errand, (if you must know I broke a nail and needed to go see the nail guy) jumped into the closet to get dressed. Then I just stood there.....looking....I have so many clothes in there and NOTHING to wear. Which I usually think nothing about, however it immediately popped into my head that last week while vacationing I didn't have this problem! In the suitcase I packed only clothes that fit, and were casual enough for my week of doing nothing.

Did you notice that I said I packed only clothes that fit! Why do we do this to ourselves?? It feels like I am in a box, and some days there are not enough ventilation holes in my box to take a deep breath.

On my way into the shopping center to see the nail guy, I had to stop for a steady stream of people coming out of the grocery store and it occurred to me that I dress like I am invisible! Too many days I act like I am invisible. Why is it that I do this to myself?? I get dressed like no one can see me...of course they can! At some point I went from not caring what other people think about me to not caring what I think about me....

it is time to climb back out of that hole.