SO. I am about to have surgery on Tuesday and I am trying to get all the little petty things done like laundry, organization, groceries stocked, oil changed in the cars, bills paid, diapers, wipes, baby and gabby food stock piled, so when I am completely out of it and drugged up I don't have to worry about it.
So today I decide to go grocery shopping. I had to return something to Wal Mart and decided hey, I will return, grocery shop, and get the oil changed in the car all at the same time. It was the perfect plan. The girlies and I loaded up in the car at 10:00. My plan was to drop the car off for a 30-45 min oil change, return my item, and grocery shop for 45 min.- hour. We drop the car off and there is no line SCORE! Well we took our time grocery shopping and my girlies were so cute bundled up in their winter gear. Gabby is my little helper when we grocery shop and she is in charge of holding all of the groceries and counting them and pointing out colors and any other games we can think of to make grocery shopping fun. Lilly is in charge of looking cute and babbling to anyone and everyone. So we check out. My girls have been Amazing up until this point. (Anyone who grocery shops with more than one child 3 and under knows you never know what will happen, and usually there are tears shed from at least one of them.)
Lil starts fussing because she is getting hungry. So I pick her up and put all of my groceries on the check out. Gabby is playing with all of the little trinkets at eevery check out where only children her size can see them. She picks up some little toy and asked me if she could get it. I said yes because she really was being great! We leave and everything is A-Ok.
We look for our car in the back parking lot, it's not there so I'm thinking it shouldn't be too much longer since we have been in here for an hour already. So we sit on the bench talking, playing I spy, and making lilly laugh. Fifteen minutes go by and I am realizing that it is lunch time, nap time, and lilly has already been ready to eat for the past 20 min. Well Gabby as any 2 1/2 year old would, starts to get restless. So she sprawls on the floor pretending to swim, Why? I have no idea She is 2! So I ask her to stand up because frankly the Wal Mart floor especially in the auto motive dept. is DISGUSTING. So does she? No. So here I am with a 7 month old on my hip, pulling my 2 year old up off the floor. Ten more minutes go by and we are facing all kinds of drama. Gabby with her obsession with the floor, Lilly starving at this point and I am just ready to get in my car and get home. Gabby deliberately kept disobeying me and now was telling me No. I took her surprise away, and that did absolutely nothing. So I pulled out the "1, 2, 3" mommy card, and yes I spanked my child because she needed to be disciplined-no it wasn't hard but it hurt her feelings enough for her to know that I was serious. So she cried for a minute and finally sat still. The next 30 min. I had to wait there listening to 3 Wal mart auto employees discuss how spanking your children, time out, taking things away and yelling at your children is child abuse. They were telling all kinds of stories about kids they have seen getting yelled at, and spanked in public.
I don't know when disciplining your children became abusive, but I am a firm believer in disciplining because I have a responsibility as a parent to teach my child how to behave. And it is EXTREMELY difficult and not a one size fits all children thing to do.
So there you a go, just ONE picture of the life of a stay at home mom. Anyone who has ever thought that we stay at home mom's do nothing is seriously mistaken. I know that working mom's work super hard too. But it is absolutely exhausting- physically, mentally, and emotionally to stay at home, make sure your house is in order, and do everything you need to do. It is the biggest blessing, but the greatest challenge.
So this one is for all you momma's out there- working or SAH momma's. You are doing a great job, and when our plans don't work out the way we think they should have, we do what we can do. And there is always tomorrow.
SIGH. Now that groceries are put away, my children are fed, and asleep it is lunch time for momma. I'm thinking nutella and a spoon. ;)
