We had a birthday party for a friend of the boys today. The morning started off ok…I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I usually make gifts for all their friends, but like I said, everything non-essential has fallen away these days so I resigned myself to purchasing something. On the way to the party, we went by the Dollar Tree which my poor deprived (NOT!) boys refer to as “the toy store”. They were behaving pretty well…just excited about the party and Squirt was panicking because he was convinced that we were going to be late.
There’s a really stupid woman who works there. Every time I go in that store she’s bitching about something and sounding incredibly ignorant about it. I’ve never really had any problems with her before though. Mostly I just see her as a miserable bitter old woman and think I don’t ever want to turn out like that.
Well, as we were waiting to check out, Squirt started asking me what time it was and if we were going to be late to the party. I might have sounded a little exasperated when I told him we had plenty of time and to just chill out. This stupid woman looked at me and said “Yeah mom…sometimes you really should leave the kids at home with Dad while you do your shopping.”
Now forget about the 500 things I would have liked to say to her at that moment…what popped out of my mouth was “Well these two don’t have a dad so I don’t really have that choice now do I?!?!?” Before I even realized I had said it out loud, Squirt, who hadn’t listened to anything I’d said all morning went into a total meltdown. He just went off on me yelling that they do too have a dad. I tried to be as sensitive as I could and apologized and explained that I meant they don’t have a dad that lives with us but I knew the damage was done and I’d give anything to take it back.
As if what I said wasn’t bad enough, while I was apologizing, the stupid woman behind the counter told him that she knew what I meant and proceeded to let off a stream of expletives about men the likes of which I’ve never heard. Now, I cuss like a sailor (I try to keep it under control in front of the kids) and I was embarrassed by her tirade. Heaven help her if either of my kids repeats even one of those words she used!!
I beat myself up about speaking without thinking the whole way to the birthday party. The kids had a good time, it was just hot and exhausting. I was hoping that FG was coming over tonight. I really wanted to get a sitter and have a real date but I couldn’t find anyone so the plan was to go out to dinner and then put the kids to bed early and have a living room date. By the time we left the party, it was dinnertime already and apparently FG’s nephew kept him up all night and he’d been running around with them all day so he had a headache. I’m exhausted anyway so I took a raincheck…hopefully we can do something tomorrow. Tomorrow will be crazier because the boys will be with their dad for a little while and I’m still not sure if I’ll be taking them to the wedding shower with me or not but an afternoon with my family is always fun. At any rate, I should be ready to snuggle up and chill out by tomorrow evening.
It’s 8:00 now and Squirt’s already asleep. Pork Chop is well on his way. I’m not far behind. Maybe I’ll have sweet dreams about that ever-illusive date…
Mom and Madness 
June 28th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
It was an accident, so don't be too hard on yourself. Kids hear everything btw, they just only respond to what they feel like. My kid is like an elephant, and I have been called out by her several times for things I've said on the phone when I thought she wasn't listening. We've all been there!