Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mama the Grouch

When I first started this stay-at-home gig, I could’ve been mistaken for the cheerful fairy. At the beginning it was all:


Time to put your shoes on!



Of course I’ll play princess puppy dance party with you!

Now it’s more like:


What are you doing? Come back here this instant!


If I catch you whining one more time, you'll get time out!
Also, I hate Jeeps!

I wonder if my children’s crabby moods are simply a product of my crabby moods, and we’re caught in some sort of ridiculous symbiotic relationship, where we all feed off of each other’s crabby-ness until we’ve all reached a point of crabby saturation.


That’s it, Jim. Take ‘er to shore.

Sometimes, I'm just so frustrated. I try to tell myself things like:

“They’re only 3 and 1. They don’t have any other ways to express their feelings.”

“Take a deep breath and assess - is this a fight worth having?”

But then I also tell myself things like:

“If you were happier, they’d be happier.”

“Why are you such a grouch to your own children?”

It’s hard to allow myself to be frustrated, without shaming myself for feeling frustrated. It’s hard to allow myself to be angry, without shaming myself for feeling angry.

I love my kids. I love that I can be at home with them while they’re still so little. So why am I so frustrated? So beat-down?

So grouchy?

1 comments:

Sassy Sister said...

Tomorrow is another day. That is what I tell myself. Plus, I think it is good for my kids to see me frusterated because they also see me calm and happy. I think it teaches them that it is ok to feel any way we want at times. I am grouchy to one of the three at least once a day. Sometimes it was uncalled for and then I apologize. For what it's worth, they now apologize when they know they could have been calmer. Kids are very resiliant, very forgiving... remember that.