The house had been SOOOOOO noisy all morning. Two of my kids were playing this cup game they learned at youth group that involves clapping and tapping and slamming cups onto the table in a certain rhythm. (Becca, if you're reading this, I owe you BIG TIME!!!!!) While they were filling the dining room with deafening sound, my oldest had his iTunes blaring on the computer and my youngest was practicing her piano lesson. I felt the familiar irritability and muscle knot at the base of my skull common to this particular week of the month. To avoid blowing my top, I decided to escape it for a while and take a shower, but when I came back down, the cup game continued, the computer had been replaced by the television and my piano girl started following me around talking to me. I didn't want to hurt anyone, so I told the cup couple, "You guys need to be done with that before your mother goes completely nuts." Recognizing the very real possibility of that, they quit immediately. (See, there IS a God!!)
In 45 minutes Cup Couple and I were leaving for the day and I wanted to get my In "Other" Words post done before I left, so I sat down at my computer. Even my headphones and white noise couldn't completely block out the commotion as Cup Couple started this chasing thing that involved lots of running, slapping, screaming, laughing, and loud bumps as they fell to the floor. It made it VERY hard to concentrate, especially with their sister asking me a completely irrelevant question every other minute! The tension kept growing and my head was feeling it. Finally, this stressed out woman lost it.
"I am NOT listening to that all day. You guys need to knock it off now or I'm not taking you."
Teen daughter replied in her exceptionally adolescent tone, "Fine, then, I won't go."
My response? "GOOD!" (Go ahead and cringe. Stupid me.)
Her mouth fell open. "Thanks a lot, Mom," she said running up the stairs to her room before the tears started falling.
I let her go and kept working on my post, honestly just thankful for some quiet, trying to convince myself she was partly to blame for what I said. But a few minutes later the guilt starting creeping in and I made my way to her room.
"I'm sorry, honey, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that. I'm trying to get stuff done before we leave and you guys were making it very hard. It made me crazy. I shouldn't have said it. I didn't mean it. I want you to go along with us. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?"
We made up and she went along with her brother and me on our shopping excursion. Even though I knew it would take longer, I treated them to lunch at their favorite restaurant, making the most of this opportunity to spend some time with my blessings in disguise. All in all, it was a pretty good day, except for the one time I was tempted to leave them in Sears.
So today I am thankful I don't have to be perfect to be a mom, because if that was the prerequisite, my life would be very boring now. I'm thankful God can take my bad and make it into something good. When I mess up, both my children and I can learn valuable lessons in humility and forgiveness. And. . .gotta say I'm thankful PMS passes eventually.
Join Iris for more Thankful Thursday posts.
13 comments:
Oh my, yes, we've all been there. I hope all is quiet in your household now. Hugs! :~)
Blessings to you dear one.
I totally identify with this post! Thank you for reminding me I don't have to be perfect. Praying you have a calmer day today.
I think we all have moments like that.....Thanks for sharing!
Blessings
They play the running, slapping, screaming game at your house too? I thought my kids had invented that one. LOL. Thank you for sharing.
For many years the house was so quiet and now that I have two grandchildren staying with us, I can say that I prefer the noise. It diverts my attention from the stresses at work. So NOISE is not that bad at all.
Good day!
Ha! Any mom has had one of those days, and even though your responded in flesh first, you made up and asked forgiveness - still a great lesson we learn and teach our kids! Have a blessed day! Thanks for sharing.
Blessings in disguise...yes they seem that way sometimes, don't they? One question...you mean the toddler screaming and preschooler whining doesn't eventually get replaced by quiet play? More noise is in store??
HA! One of the reasons we adopted our 3 boys was that we could not stand how quiet our house was becoming. Be careful what you ask for! ; )
Sorry to break it to you, Christine, but the decibel level grows with the child. But don't despair, they also learn how to read Mom's tolerance level.
I just love the honesty that you are sharing with us on the matter of raising children.
I have lost it a couple times when our son was a teenager--I even helped him back his suit-case. But since he didn't know where to go, we un-packed it agai. With 22 - he is still living in our home, but we both have come down quite a bit :)
Thank you so much for sharing your thankfulness with us this week.
Be blessed today and always.
LOL, we are living parallel lives! My noisy home (four children, school's out!) has me running to the peaceful seclusion of my bedroom for small 15 min. bits of silent reading time :-) Uh, yes, I put myself in time out. {}
What a beautiful thing you are teaching your children...that none of us has to be perfekt. We can't be--there's only 1. I love that Amish women sew an imperfection "on purpose" into their beautiful quilts because they know that only God is perfect.
However, you also took it a step farther, and repented and asked for forgiveness (of a teenager, no less!!!). Bravo. It's hard to do, but so important. Your kids are blessed by you even on "these" days.
I identified w/your post in so many ways. I'm VEEERRRRYY noise sensitive, myself, so I get that one to a T! :)
Blessings to you. Thank you for your list.
Post a Comment