When I was a kid, my Mom used to take my brother and me on these long car trips. We’d load up and then drive across the country to all sorts of places. One particular time we got back to a spotless house because my Dad was a neat freak. In the process of unloading two kids and a Mom from the car, we made the house a mess. It wasn’t hugely messy, but it wasn’t the spotless home my Dad had been living in. We then left to get groceries or run errands of some sort. While we were gone Dad got home and went around the house taking pictures of the piles.
You have to remember this is back in the days of film cameras, so first, we paid for the film he took these pictures on, and then we paid to develop these pictures.
I always thought my Dad was crazy.
That was until the day I snapped.
To give the full context of what’s about to happen.
Supposedly my kids had spent the morning cleaning. Now to take full responsibility, I had not thoroughly checked on their work. I’d done a quick walk by and not seen anything as I walked out the door. I don’t know how I didn’t see the state of the kitchen. That was particularly horrible, but I didn’t, and I didn’t say anything because of it.
I got home from dropping the children off at their various activities and realized the supposedly clean house wasn’t.
I snapped, and I flashed back to what my Dad had done
I walked through the downstairs taking pictures.
I took pictures of the bag randomly in the middle of the floor and the piles of dirty dishes that had not been cleaned. It’s a little hard to work on dinner when your kitchen looks like that.
Then I walked over to the dining room. I found trash on the floor. Computers left out. An empty Sprite can and blankets where I nearly tripped on them.
I don’t remember, exactly what happened next, but I know I texted my husband a couple of pictures with dire threats to children.
He probably responded with a simple, “Calm down Ticia, you’ve got that crazy look in your eyes. I can’t see them, but I’m sure it’s there.”
I might have responded back with a bit of hysterics.
Might have.
I do remember my kids spent the rest of that night and the next day getting the cleaning done they hadn’t earlier.
They did not watch the movie we’d planned, and dinner might have been a little late, what with all the dishes being dirty, it’s a bit understandable.
Why do I share this?
A couple of reasons:
- To encourage you, we all have days where we get frustrated with our kids.
- So you can laugh at my temporary insanity over dirty dishes
- So you can be encouraged that even when kids mess up, the world hasn’t ended and you can start over.
Really, it’s that second reason. To quote Mr. Bennett, “For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?”
I figure someone else might need that laugh today. I certainly did as I wrote this. It’s been one of those weekends. One child got sick, another child had a freak out over the due dates for schoolwork and missing schoolwork, and the third child well, the third child actually did nothing to make it worse, I’m just feeling like everyone had THAT weekend.
We recently moved into our house and half of our home is in boxes still. To top it off the boys are sharing a basement room with the dogs because their bedrooms aren’t ready for sleeping, they started school this week, and finally after 7 days and a professional the dryer is no longer leaking gas but the kitchen pipes are draining into a wall next to the basement and flooding the basement. We’re having one of those months. There’s been a lot if pictures. ? including today when I had to brush the dog for the third time this week to get a small dog worth of hair (?seriously, how is she not bald?!).
I don’t know, I had a sheltie growing up and that dog shed so much, it was amazing. I think if we’d shaved him, he would have lost half his weight.
That is A MONTH you’re having. Hopefully, the problems will be solved soon.
This really made me smile. Yes, I have my “snap moments” too, even though I usually don’t snap pictures during them. I think kids actually learn something valuable when we snap – like there are boundaries they’d better not cross.
I don’t usually either, there was just something about this time that I did.
I agree, sometimes they need to see boundaries shouldn’t be pushed from time to time, and helps them learn it in a safe situation.
“I might have responded back with a bit of hysterics.” LOL
If we could predict the times that are going to make us snap, we probably wouldn’t snap. God’s grace covers that, and all we can do is be humble, own our part in it and pray that the next time is less hysterical.
Your post made me laugh, Ticia, although I’m sure you didn’t see the humor until it was all over. 🙂
That is so true. It’s probably also part of how God works on us and shows us how to grow.
I definitely wasn’t laughing at the time, but once I sat back and realized how ridiculous I’d been, I was laughing quite a lot.
You know I have. 😉 Thanks for sharing this!