You know, when you read other people's blogs you get this mental image of what their life is like.  Typically, almost an idyllic image filled with good times, happy children... perfection wrapped up in a bow.  Let me shatter that image right now.  My life is mostly chaos, punctuated by moments that transcend into spheres of normalcy, and those are the moments that get blogged.

Here is a reality check of what my day to day life is really like.

Hubby went off to work today and it was me and the kids, as usual, snowbound in the house.  After lunch, I fell asleep on the couch.  I should have known better than to get horizontal - I have been in a constant state of sleep deprivation since having kids, so sleep overtook me.  Anyone with kids knows you don't fall asleep on duty.

I woke up to Angelina standing in front of me, whining.  Probably for juice, but I was just waking up so I'm not sure.  But what I noticed was this chunky wet mess all down her shirt and pants.  "Oh, my gosh - she's thrown up all over herself," I'm thinking.  Nope.  The kids set me straight on that one right away.

"She didn't throw up," says Trinity.  "We were making an experiment."

A mother's worst nightmare.  Those are not words you want to hear.  Well I'm off and running... into the kitchen to get a rag and clean up Angelina.  That's where I notice that all of the bananas that were hanging on their stand on the counter are now gone.  My heart sinks.  An entire bunch of bananas - gone.

I would like to say that I handled the situation calmly and firmly and that I would make SuperNanny proud.

But I would be lying.

I wigged out.  It wasn't pretty.  By the time I found their experiment (upstairs in the playroom - they needed their play kitchen, don't you know) I was practically in hysterics.  It ended up with me collapsed on the kitchen floor crying.  Not my proudest moment as a mom, but this is my reality.  And sometimes I just can't deal with it.

So here is the final ingredient list on their cooking experiment:

6 bananas, mashed  (that I just bought with our WIC check)
a quarter a bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for some reason, they actually spared me some evoo, but they did leave a paint brush in the bottle that I can't get out)
almost an entire bottle of pancake syrup
1 package tapioca
1 package vanilla pudding
1 8 oz bottle yellow mustard

Right up until the mustard, you could almost salvage the mush to use in a bread or muffin recipe.  But the yellow mustard killed that.

These are the days that make me feel like a failure as a mother.
Ever been there?

Here's hoping your day after Christmas was better than mine!

Posted in: failure, raising kids, reality on Saturday, December 26, 2009 at at 7:40 PM