Mommathon

There was a story on the news a week or so ago about a woman who left her kids (ages two and four, I think) home alone at night while they were supposed to be sleeping. Nothing happened to them, they were fine, but the reason she gave for leaving them alone was one that struck me. Now let me set a few things straight, I am not condoning her behavior, nor would I ever leave my own children home alone, but I felt for her. She said she is a single mom and she never gets to do anything she wants to do by herself. Now that is not a reason to leave your children alone and in possible danger, but I know I can get a little stir crazy and frustrated at times when Sean is out of town. It is hard having to take your kids everywhere with you all the time no matter where you are going or what you are doing. Even when Sean is out of town, I know he will be back. It’s not going to last forever. This woman doesn’t have that. She doesn’t have anyone coming to offer her relief. I have a single friend who was a foster mom to a couple of small children and she said the hardest transition for her was that if she was out of milk or just needed to run to the store real fast it became a huge laborious process to just get out the door. She also had a hard time adjusting to being stuck at home at 8p.m. every night. I know what that mom did was wrong, but I feel for her.

Every age has things that are troublesome, but are also developmentally appropriate. Toddlers may bite their playmates or suck their thumb, teenage girls are emotional wrecks and five-year olds lie (you know where I am going with this). Catching him in a lie is a double-edge sword, too. If he lies and then he tells the truth, do you punish him for lieing or reward him for telling the truth or neither? We have talked to him about not telling the truth and I know he “gets it”, it’s not a matter of him not understanding and he doesn’t lie all the time about everything, but every once in a while, the truth will get twisted to suit his needs. For example, today I told him he could have a leftover birthday cupcake after he ate his lunch. I then went upstairs and put Colm down for his nap. Liam then came up to inform me that he had eaten all of his lunch. I was a little surprised since he had just told me he wasn’t hungry and not that much time had passed, but I had no reason not to believe him. So after Colm was in bed, I went downstairs and gave him a cupcake. He took a bite and then informed me that his lunch was in the trash. Obviously he wasn’t allowed to eat the remainder of his cupcake. Toddlers eventually stop sucking their thumbs and teenage girls eventually learn to live with less drama, let’s hope this passes, too.

We braved the weather and went to Liam’s check-up today. Liam weighed in at 53 lbs. (94%) and is 46 inches (97%) tall. He has 20/30 vision which is good for a five-year old (atleast that’s what they told me) and everything else checked out great, too. Then it was time for shots. Liam feels the same way about shots as he does about swimming lessons. You can get him to do it, but it is going to take more than one adult to make it happen. So, with two nurses holding him down and me rubbing his head, shots were administered. That was after he knocked the tray over and kicked the nurse while she was giving him the shot. He screamed as if we were using a blunt butter knife to amputate a limb. You think I am exaggerating, but I am not. It is a mixed bag of emotions, too. You are mad at your kid for kicking the nurse, you feel sorry for him because he is so upset and you are mortified and completely embarrased because a-he kicked the nurse and b-even the people in the waiting room can hear him screaming and it’s even a little bit funny because you are causing such a scene. You almost have to laugh a little…or else you might cry.