This morning, as with every morning here, it was a little crazy. I was feeding the baby, trying to get Becky and Josh dressed, and notice that it's time for the kids to head out to the bus.
So, in a mad dash the kids leave for school. I finished getting the little kids dressed, changed Katie (who has had a blow out), and tried to get out to the car so I could take Josh to preschool.
Then...
I walked into the kitchen...
And it looked like a tornado had blown through...there was food on the ground, dishes on the table and counters...and worst of all...ALL the trash from making lunches was...no, not in the trash can, but on the floor, on the table, everywhere and anywhere, except where it was supposed to be.So, mean mom emerged. (Picture the scene from the Incredible Hulk, where Bruce Banner is pushed beyond his limits, as his clothes start to tear, as his skin turns green...ahhhh...)
Mean Mom, you say? Yeah. I hurried and got Josh to preschool and then drove to the elementary school, picked the kids up, and made them come home and pick up their trash.
I know! Mean mom.
I could have picked up the trash. I could have put everything away. I could have done lot of things, but what would they have learned?
So we had a long talk (with no yelling, yeah, me!) about how if we wanted to take hot lunches to school, then we needed to be more responsilbe and put our trash IN the trash can, otherwise PB&J made the night before (OH NO!).
Then, one more quick trip to return the kids to school, lesson learned (I hope).
Oh yeah. And the words you don't want to hear while in the middle of a blog post?
"Mommy, I pooped in my underwear." (With big eyes and a sweet smile.)
Ahhhhh!!!
13 comments:
That's some creative parenting at work. And a "mean" Mom would have yelled in the process.
I love it!! I tell my kids "mean mom" means I must be doing something right!
OH wow. That took patience. I KNOW I would not have been that patient. I never would have thought to go get the kids and have them clean it. I wonder if they will ever do that again???????? Let us know if the lesson was well learned. I may just have to get some of your other "mean mom" secrets. Cause I am the meanest mom in the whole world (so I have been told). In fact one of the kids decided that they didn't want to live with this mean mom. So I told him to pack his bags and I would help him find a "different mom". Didn't take him long to decide that maybe I wasn't so bad after all.
I love that you actually went and got them FROM school to pick up the mess. I am definitely going to have to remember that one. As for mean mom.....I don't think so. Great mom, definitely!
What a great lesson in responsibility :)
I can't wait until I'm old enough to be a mean mom like that! Way to go Denise! Maybe next time you could make them clean up the trash with tongs.
Oops, I didn't mean to imply that you have to be old to be a mean mom, or that you are old. I meant until my kids were old enough that I could be a mean mom like that! Sorry for the seemingly veiled insult!
I only hope to be that mean. I'd be too lazy to go pick them up and drop them off. I'd just let'em have it later, then endure the mess every morning after that. My mom did that to us, but she'd just call the school and tell them to have me walk home, make my bed, then walk back. The secretary at our school was our bishops wife. I think they both had it in for me.
Now I want a blog two weeks from now to see if they really learned.
I am so proud of you!! I would have picked up the mess, grumbled the entire time and then tried to lecture them in my clean kitchen when they got home. The point would not have been made! I am proud of you!! Go good mom!!
Daniel tells this story about when he was a little boy and he put off taking his dog out to go. The dog ended up going on the living room floor. Marilyn made him clean it up. When he complained about her being such a mean mom, she responded "A mean mom would have cleaned it up for you".
I'm very impressed. It's a lesson they won't soon forget.
Kudos to mean mom! You totally make the effort to teach your kids how to behave -- unlike the "parents" who brought kids into a restaurant this afternoon and let them scream and run around. So much for a nice lunch atmosphere.
In situations like that, am I allowed to say "Sit down and be quiet" in the "I'll hurt you if you don't heed me" voice? (c:
-ah in OC
Nice work!
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