When you become "that" parent.....

[femkes_follies]

I outsmarted myself yet again, yesterday. I offered to take the girls out of the house so that John could clean, reasoning that since he had let the house get into that state, he could get it out.

So, I put Anneliese up front in the van with me, where she couldn't pull out Rori's pacifier, and off we went. Thus far, the plan worked well. Rori napped, Anneliese watched her DVD player, all was well. We arrived at the mall, and I unpacked all the baby gear necessary for an outing, then the baby, then Anneliese. As we walked into the mall, I thought to myself that I ought to have packed a spare outfit for Rori - the last two trips I'd taken with her in the stroller had gotten.... messy.

Sure enough, about 20 minutes later a massive baby blow out necessitated a complete change. *sigh* I changed her diaper, removed her adorable little leg warmers, and rolled up the soiled portion of her romper. Then upstairs we went to Gymboree, where a clearance sale was underway (lukcy for me). $4.79 later I was changing her into a clean, cute onesie. Soiled outfit went into the shopping back for biological containment.

Then to the bookstore, where I sent an elderly clerk in search of the Liffey Rivers series of books, to no avail. I wanted to shoulder her away from the screen and do the search myself - as search results are closely related to what you put into each field. *sigh*. I found them on line when I got home, here.

Still killing time, we wandered down to the Dairy Queen. I got a cone for Anneliese (who wants the cone, but not so much the ice cream). And a Blizzard for Rori and I. I frog-marched them over to a table, set down the ice cream, and went to sit the baby upright for easier feeding. Anneliese, not knowing the meaning of the word "patience," grabbed her cone, pulled it to her, and let go again - knocking it on the floor. I sighed, and picked it up to put in the trash. Cue Anneliese sobbing, as she only knew Momma had thrown away her treat - not understanding really that I was going to go get her another. So I picked up the other cup of ice cream - which I had set down in front of Rori - and she started sobbing - also deprived of ice cream. So the Parade of Woe hiked back to the DQ for another ice cream cone amid much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Rori launched her pacifer, which was retrieved and returned, with significant trepidation, by a kind gentleman. By the time the interlude was over and everyone was again content, I had spent a slid 5 minutes - that felt like an eternity - being "that" mother with the weeping children that everyone looks askance at in silent horror and pity.

I shoulda stayed and cleaned the house!

Comments

[mistressarafina.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. My sister and her son lived with us for a little while when I nephew was a toddler. I would take him to school in the morning and my sister would pick him up. Well, one day I had to pick him up and he had fallen asleep on the train. All was well. Then we were approaching the end of the line and I prematurely started moving to get all our stuff together to get off the train and he starts crying. Well, shrieking was actually the more appropriate term. One would've thought that I was killing him with the amount of noise he was making. On top of that, the train was delayed going into the station so I was on a train car with a screaming toddler with nowhere to go and no way to make it better. I got those looks too.

I am sorry that you had one of those days, but it seems to be something that every parent must endure eventually.

PS Sorry to make your story all about me, but I just wanted to share. :D

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

Eh, it was more a matter of "These things happen when you get overconfident." ;-)

They also happen more with Anneliese, for some reason.

[eleanor-deyeson.livejournal.com]

Those looks of silent horror and pity may also have been a quiet yet fervent prayer of thankfulness ... "Thank God my children are past that stage." or "Thank the Lord my kids didn't do that to me TODAY." or "I'm so happy I was able to find a babysitter and get out by myself this time."

I know those are the thoughts that go thru my mind when I see someone else's kids melting down. Experienced parents know that it's the child that controls the mood, not the mommy.

Hope tomorrow is better for you.

[femkederoas.livejournal.com]

They weren't really that bad. It was more my lack of foresight that sort of got me into trouble. And the fact that I think it's almost (past) time to move the baby into the next diaper size. But darn it, I'm going to finish the box I've got, first!