Not My Most Stellar Moment October 14, 2009
Posted by Emily in : My Handsome Husband, Parenthood, Princess Hannah, Thoughts , 4commentsInstead of boring you with all the tedious details of moving (which basically consists of packing box, after box, after box and then watching my kids unpack my boxes. My house is a disastrous mess, and trust me, it’s eating me up inside. I don’t like clutter. I don’t like dirt. I really don’t like disorganization, but such is my life right now. . .) I’m going to share a story about me not being a very good wife or mother.
Yep.
Me.
My house should be deemed “CONDEMNED!” at this exact moment. My floors are covered with stuff, boxes, toys, junk, packing supplies, and things that don’t belong to me. The visible parts of my floor are covered in sticky grime.
Obviously, I should mop.
But why? Seriously?
We’re moving. I’m using the floors to pack my things. There is going to be a lot more activity on these floors before we get down and dirty for our last major cleaning as we walk out the door, so why should I waste the time now?
Honestly.
I’m taking a break from the house rules right now. Want to eat in your bed? Go ahead. Want to drink hot chocolate on the carpet? Be my guest. Would you like to eat your dinner on my furniture? Whatever. I don’t have the time or desire to enforce all the house rules when my home looks like a disaster zone.
This conversation happened between Hannah and me a couple days ago:
ME: Hannah, do you want to drink some hot chocolate?
HANNAH: Me? Hot Chocolate?
ME: Yeah, you can drink it while you watch your show.
HANNAH: Downstairs? In front of my show? In the basement? On the carpet?
ME: Yes honey. Downstairs on the very carpet you sit on to watch “The Polar Express.”
HANNAH: raising her devious little eyebrows and smiling said, “Is is because we don’t have a daddy here right now to tell us NOT to?”
And do you know what I said? Because I could have/should have said a lot of things, but that smart little sass caught me by surprise.
So I said, “That’s right honey. Because we don’t have a daddy here right now to tell us not to.” (I raised my own devious eyebrows to match her expression. I’m that awesome.)
Instead of talking about how wrong this was on so many levels (pitting the parents against each other, inconsistent parenting, teaching my child deception, painting my husband out to be the staunch rule maker, blah, blah, blah) let’s focus on how much packing I was able to accomplish because Hannah got to drink hot chocolate on the carpet, watching her favorite show. (For the record, our carpets are being dry cleaned the day we move.)
But here’s my question: What should I have said? What would you have done?
