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Home > Blogs > Adventures in Motherhood > Archives > 2010 > March > 09 > Entry
Son makes mom’s “dream come true” … sort of
I am far from a perfect mother. In fact, I had a classic mommy-meltdown recently.
After telling the boys one too many times to clean up their room, I walked in to get them ready for bed and was greeted by the same piles of clothes and toys I had demanded be put away hours ago.
Apparently, I was at the breaking point by this time of the day.
My face reddened as the “lecture” began to rise in my throat but, it didn’t come out as such. “How many times have I told you to clean your room?” I hollered like a mad woman. “I am not going to do it for you! Listen to me the first time and I won’t have to yell!”
As soon as it came out of my wide open mouth I knew I had lost all composure. The boys both looked at me like I had frogs coming out of my nose.
Then, to my dismay - and theirs - I saw Noah’s prized “big boy” toy on the floor.
“What is that?” I demanded.
Noah sheepishly stared at me, knowing he was really in trouble now.
This particular item is something he had been told from day one, was to be taken care of like it was a newborn baby, yet there it was, inviting someone to step on it.
I promptly removed the item from said location and relocated it out of Noah’s possession. He was crushed, but he knew the deal.
After my eruption, we settled into our bedtime routine, forgetting momentarily about the messy room. I tucked my little men in and left them to slumber.
“Oh, why did I do that?” I said to myself immediately feeling the guilt for acting like, well, a child.
The next morning, still in the alarm-clock daze, I went in the boys’ room to wake Noah for school.
I shuffled to the bed and roused him from the top bunk.
He sat up, glanced around his room and said, “Look Mom, the floor is clean.”
I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and looked around. Sure enough, there wasn’t a toy or shirt on the floor. After my rant, Noah had snuck out of bed and cleaned the room.
“I wanted all of your dreams to come true,” Noah said in his best salesman voice.
I laughed, but also felt the knife of guilt twist in my chest. He later admitted he was also afraid I would not ever return his prized play thing.
I sucked it up and admitted to the boys I had been a little crazy the night before and should have handled things differently, not dismissing the fact that their listening skills need some improvement.
Next time I hope the consequences will be different - for us all.
Email this contributing writer at Motherhoodcolumn@yahoo.com.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Motherhood Column
Comments
By sara
March 9, 2010 2:51 PM | Link to this
how sweet!!!!
By Lea
March 9, 2010 2:34 PM | Link to this
The important part is you learned a lesson from your mistake. I had one of these last night - I finally looked at my stepson and said, “please go play with your DS and leave me alone till I cool down okay?”