Okay, so I know I'm not perfect. I know that there will be days when I'm not even going to be close. I try to be the best at everything that I do, especially at being a mom. But there are just some days that go awry, and Saturday was one of those days...
So Forrest has this new friend. He's a sweet kid, same age as Forrest, and they go to the same school. He even goes to after school care with him. Funny thing is, he's lived in our neighborhood for five years, and until Saturday, I've never laid eyes on him. Now Chris says that he's seen him around in recent weeks (I guess I just wasn't paying attention), but that's still just been very recent, and he's been there for FIVE YEARS?? So anyway, I guess that he and Forrest are new best friends. This is good because Forrest hasn't really meshed with most of the kids on our street. With the exception of one, they are all older than he is, and they just aren't interested in playing with someone younger than they are.
So this boy shows up on Saturday morning and wants to know if Forrest can come outside to play. It was about 10:30 am, and Saturdays are the days that I have to do my chores. I do my best to keep up with things during the week, but since I work full time, the house cleaning and a lot of laundry end up waiting until the weekend. I told Forrest that he could go outside if he wanted to, but just stay close to the house. I don't like him going out when I can't be outside with him (there are WAY too many crazy people out there!), but I just had to keep working and go out from time to time to check on him. Chris was at work, so I was on my own.
Well Emma is teething, and she has got a serious case of separation anxiety going on right now, so needless to say, she was foul. So here I am, trying to clean the house, and do mounds and mounds of laundry, all with a cranky baby who refuses to be put down, so I'm working with one hand. And then, the front door opens for the first of many, many times. In comes Forrest AND his friend, door slamming behind them. Up the stairs to Forrest's room, down the stairs, into the garage, back out the front door - slam. Deep cleansing breath...
So it's time for Emma to eat, and I'm in the kitchen feeding her apricots with cereal, when I see Forrest running through the backyard. Then I hear the front door open (again) - slam. A little odd, but I don't hear anything. Then the front door opens (again) - slam. Then I see Forrest running through the backyard again. Then the front door opens (again) - slam. So the patience is just about gone, and I call out "Forrest?" I'm about to read him the riot act about running in and out when his friend comes around the corner alone. He tells me that Forrest is outside (I guess in the backyard still??), and he wants to know where the door to the garage is because he needs to get something. So I ask what he wants, and I tell him that I will get it for him, but that he needs to go back outside. So he goes back outside - slam - and I go into the garage and get him the pogo stick that he asked for. At this point, I think I'm having an out of body experience...
I'll divert my attention to another topic here for a sec, so bear with me. It has relevance on what I'm writing here... When I was a child, I was never never allowed to go into someone else's yard without their permission (OR my parents), let alone INSIDE their house. Even if I kicked a ball into their yard, I didn't dare retrieve it unless I knocked on their door to let them know I needed to go into their yard to get it. I didn't play with someone else's toys without their permission, and if they allowed me to play with their toys, I was very were careful so as not to break them. And when I was finished, I returned them. What has happened to this???
So a few minutes later, I go outside to check on Forrest, and a strange car pulls up. I stayed put, making sure that the kids were all okay. It turns out to be the boy's mother, who has come to pick him up. Apparently, her car was in the shop and it was ready, so she was going to get it. Well her son didn't want to go with her, so she got out to ask me if she could leave him with me while she went to get it. I told her that would be fine (but I'm completely horrified as to the fact that this is the first time she's met me, and she's perfectly okay with leaving her kid with me, albeit for twenty minutes or so...I could be a pedophile for all she knows!). So now it's about 11:30, and it's lunch time. So I go outside and ask the boys if I can fix them some lunch, and they agree. When it's ready, they came inside - slam - to eat. At this point, Emma is down for her nap, and I'm going 90 mph trying to get as much done (with BOTH hands) that I can while she's sleeping. So they eat lunch, and afterwards decide to play Wii. That lasted all of two minutes, and then headed upstairs (again) to Forrest's room. I'm seriously on the verge of a complete meltdown at this point. I tell them they need to stay downstairs because Emma is sleeping, and they HAD BETTER NOT WAKE HER UP (this was said through tightly clenched teeth)!!!! I suggested that they go back outside and play, which they did... for about two minutes. And then, they came back in - slam - with ANOTHER child.
So I send them back outside, but not until Forrest has called his dad at work twelve times about various things, and the meltdown is coming ever closer. I told Chris that I was about to lose it, and he talked to Forrest and told him that I had things I needed to do, and that he and his friends needed to play outside. After all, it was only 80 degrees, and the humidity was very low. It was a beautiful day! Again, that lasted about two minutes before they're back inside - slam - because they need a drink (they were hot...). This went on and on and on, until they came back in - slam - with another friend, and that was IT!! I finally had a meltdown and sent them all packing, but not before I told Forrest that if he came inside one more time, he would be grounded for the rest of the weekend. That finally got through.
After a whole afternoon and six loads of laundry, I finally got the house clean (but not as well as I would have liked), and Forrest was no longer banished from the kingdom, but it took me all day. Fast forward to 8:00 that evening, and the boy is still outside (where is his mom??) when we get home from dinner. He decided to go home at about 9:30 when it was dark, and his mom called looking for him.
Now I'm trying to be a good mom. I'm not always the best at it, but I'm trying. I want Forrest to have friends, and I want him to be able to bring them inside to play. Unfortunately our house is just not conducive to that. We don't have a basement or a bonus room for them to play, and his bedroom is absolutely tiny. Also unfortunate is the fact that Forrest doesn't pick up his toys (which is MY fault for not enforcing that). But because he doesn't pick up after himself, I know that when his friends are over, everything that comes out will be cleaned up...by ME! Not a good thing when I'm already busting it to get the house clean as it is. I just wish that it didn't take a complete meltdown for me to get my point across. That was not a proud mom moment for me.
On Sunday, as soon as we got home from church, the boy was back for the day, and the whole process started over - slam. And that evening, Emma rolled off the bed. Now, my bad mom weekend was complete...
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