Lots of Words About Parenting
Alright. Life as a stay at home mom…
The first two weeks were rough. Adelaide was teething and not napping and we didn’t have a schedule and she was like, “How many tantrums can I throw in one week before my mom goes crazy?”
Or at least that’s what I think she said.
When Jon came home after work one day I told him, “I think I might have made a mistake.” This full time mom thing. It’s hard. Seriously hard.
But then the third week started and our routine kind of fell into place. And by “fell into place” I mean, “I didn’t dare mess with nap time”. We started meeting up with friends, going to mom’s groups, participating in structured classes. We kept busy and we had fun and before I knew it the day was over and she was asleep in bed.
Jon also started doing bedtime, which has quite literally changed my life. Up until a month ago I would nurse Adelaide to sleep. Some days it would take minutes, other days an hour. For a year and a half. And then one day I was going to be out and Jon had to do bedtime and guess what? He did great. She did great. So now he puts her to bed and I sit on the couch with a bottle box of wine or I get to actually go out and meet up with friends. I’ve been out more times in the last month than I have been in the last year and a half combined. And it feels so good.
I also had my first tigermom moment. Adelaide and I were in Ikea one day while Jon was at work. We got to the kid’s area and they have all of the toys out so the kids can play with them. I figured we had an entire day to kill, so she could play there as long as she wanted. There were only two other kids in the play area- little boys (maybe 3 and 5?). They had been playing really rough and at one point one of them literally jumped and landed on top of Adelaide. I picked him up off of her and said “Please be careful of the little girl” and then made sure she was okay.
The kids all continue playing separately, and I distinctly remember thinking, “Where is their parent?” We’d been there a solid ten minutes and I had not seen anyone supervise these boys. It was almost to the point that I wanted to contact security because these children had clearly been abandoned in Ikea.
Seconds later, the younger boy runs full speed ahead at Adelaide with one of those horse heads on a stick (What are they called? Also, how are they a fun toy??) and knocks her down hard. Her head hits the cement floor and she immediately lets out screams of pain. I pick her up and yell, “THAT IS NOT OKAY. WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER??”
I would like to give myself props that my first reaction was to call out his parent for sucking. So this woman looks up from clear across the store. I’m not even joking, she was chillaxing across the store doing her makeup. Her son runs over to her and hugs mommy’s legs. I walk over with Adelaide on my hip and she says, “Oh did the baby fall” and I respond, “NO. Your son PUSHED her. He needs to apologize.”
So she says, “Sweetheart, can you apologize?” and little sweet innocent over here starts quivering his lip. I just stood there staring mom down, not willing to back down. I repeated “He needs to apologize” and mom didn’t make any effort to tell her son to apologize again. She also didn’t apologize for her son’s behavior, which is honestly the most maddening part of this story.
I finally say, “So that’s how it is now? Your kid can hurt another kid and get away with it?” Mom of the year responds, “Well, I don’t think he got away with it. He clearly feels bad.”
WHAT? He feels bad that he got caught! Not that he hurt a little girl!
I get that kids get hurt, that kids push and bite. But come on lady, at least ask if my kid is okay.
