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Sunday, February 11, 2007
Every now and then when you're having a really good kids day, you'll snag one of those compliments like "I don't know how you do it" or "Wow, I could never do all that."The moms that hear this (myself included) usually laugh inwardly and think to themselves "ha! if they could only see me on an average day!"
I had that comment from a friend yesterday and I laughed inwardly knowing how very many flaws I have in my mommy-ing abilities.
Then this morning, I made a HUGE Mommy-mistake. One of those ones that you hope no one saw.
I dumped my kid on his head.
Yep, face first, onto the floor.
From a dead sleep.
What a way to wake up.
But let me backup...
We were in church this morning and about ten minutes into the sermon, Emmitt decided he wanted to start laughing. Now that's much better than crying or screaming, but it's still fairly noisy and I try to be respectful of the people around me. So off Emmitt and I went to the Cafe to sit in the cozy chairs and to listen to the sermon where his sense of humor wouldn't distract anyone.
(The goal of these trips out of the sanctuary is usually to get him to sleep so that we can creep back in and catch the rest of the sermon.)
So he played a few minutes, then he nursed for about ten minutes then he settled down and fell asleep in his bucket as I rocked him back and forth.
Victory!
I stood up, threw the diaper bag over my shoulder, reached down to pick up the bucket and as I was picking it up I had that sudden "oh crap!" moment of realizing that the handle hadn't locked.
As such, the bucket rotated, out fell the blanket and BAM! Out fell Emmitt face first into the blanket on the floor.
Oops.
I knew he wasn't hurt, I saw him hit. He fell a whole six inches and he landed in three inches of crocheted blanket. However, the shift of going from peaceful slumber to blanket face plant was not a pleasant one and as you can imagine, screaming chaos ensued.
Now here's the part that makes me a bad mommy.
I laughed at him.
I LAUGHED at the fact that my four month old just did a face plant into the floor due to MY mistake.
Yep. I just lost my seat in the Mommy Hall of Fame.
Now I did pick him up and rock him and love him and rub his head to calm him down...but still. I laughed the whole time.
I hope no one saw.
I bet someone did.
Don't tell anyone, ok?
Labels: Life as a Mom
I did the same exact thing about one week ago to my four month old, only she happened to be buckled in so while she didn't hit the floor she did do this weird flip thing in the air. My DH saw and was furious because I started laughing so hard I had to sit down.
My mommy's gift saved his LIFE!
Oh, thank you! Your one of the moms whose blogs I read and think to myself--Why can't I manage to do as much every day as she does. Clearly I must be lacking in the mommy-genes somewhere.
It's good to see that all of us have our moments. I probably would have laughed, too.
Oh, I know exactly what you mean! I often get the giggles right at the worst moment - during a tantrum, or just as I'm trying to lay down the law. I don't know why is strikes me as funny or just absurd, but it really doesn't help...
LOL...Judy, you are totally right and you should tell her that! That blanket is so thick that it ended up making it like he was falling on carpet (instead of umm...concrete, which is what the floor was.) As such, he's got two little scratches on his forehead, but does not appear to be dain bramaged.
Shelly, you can join me on the bench outside the mommy hall of fame as all the REALLY good mommies point at us and mock us and make us wear shirts that say "bad mommy!"
Ohhh....I would SO wear a shirt that says "bad mommy."
Amy...if only you knew. I have a friend with a little girl a week older than Emmitt. She also works from home, but her daughter has been going to day care so that she can get things done. She asked me yesterday how I do it and I laughed and said "oh, if you only knew."
So let it be said here and now...
My kids sometimes go days without baths.
I sometimes go days without baths.
I sometimes wear the same clothes for three days straight.
I can SEE the dirt on my carpet.
I haven't seen the surface of my kitchen table in more than a month.
I yell at my kids. (Yep, even Emmitt...because sometimes he will NOT stop making that horrific infant whiney sound that makes you want to ram your head into a concrete wall.)
Supermom is my blogging persona. In real life, I live on the verge of a nervous breakdown and tell myself every day that in fifteen more years, I *might* get to take a nap. :)
Because really...don't we all just do the best that we can and accept that there are areas of life that we're just not going to do well at until the kids are grown up and out of the house?
No one ever looked back and wished they'd spent more time cleaning. ;)
Good thing this didn't happen in the sanctuary because God would have seen you do it there ;-)
As for the supermom persona thing, I can totally relate. I am trying to be more transparent in my blogging too. It also reminds me of what really matters.
I have stopped trying to figure out how people manage or do things. If I ask them it is not because I am putting them on a pedestal, but because they probably have something to teach me. I also stopped wondering how others do it because I found myself getting jealous.
The cleaning part is so true. A friend of mine's mom says that we can clean the house after the kids move out.
i, too, was wondering how you did it "all." glad to see you are human like the rest of us. ;)
i always feel a bit guilty when i laugh at my kids, but there are some moments when i just can't help it. i think you definitely have to keep your sense of humor on this parenting journey or you'll go crazy.
Thank you so much for the honesty! I'm laughing now, too! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one whose not up for Mother of Year.
Rather than be horrified at dropping your baby I'm rather more impressed that you had to remove him for laughing. You have to burn about 10,000 calories to get my 6 month old daughter to laugh and if anyone saw the antics you had to perform to get that precious little giggle they'd toss you in the loony bin.
On the other hand, her 11 year old step/half brother walks in the room and sneezes and she about busts a gut (this really happened).
But back to topic - I think laughing at your little boy's spill is a perfect reaction. Then he learns that it isn't really a big deal once the initial fright is past. It always bothers me when parents go rushing to their child when they take a spill and make a big production out of the smallest boo boo. Seems to me that's how kids learn to over dramatize everything.
Glad Emmitt is okay. :-)
One bad mommy moment I must share:
Last week Catie was starting to cry, you know just getting the sad frown face going. I knew it would stop if I comforted her, so I let her go because it was so darn cute.
Oh wait, add this too:
You're totally justified with yelling at Emmitt at least a little, because that whine is something else. Catie just grunts then cries.
I would vote that Laughing at that moment is Exactly why you should be in the Mama Hall of Fame, with a
Special Mention for Great Perspective
:):)
as an aside, I actually got to listen to an entire sermon!
LOL...Greg reminded me today that when Elnora was about five months old and had first started to sit up, she landed on her head too.
(You know, just so you all think that we damage our kids equally...)
As I now recall, she was sitting on the couch and I was sitting next to her. Greg was on th floor and we were talking to her.
She pitched forward and rolled right off the couch landing head first on the floor.
We looked at each other and at the same time said "why didn't you catch her?"
LOL. Oops.
I wonder if that's why she hardly talks? (Though she said THREE new words today...that expanded her vocabulary by like 25%! LOL.)
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