Monday, November 3, 2008

Not The Monday I Had Planned ...

Here's one of my secrets -- secret only because I feel like a Bad Mommy when I admit it -- I use Mondays to recuperate from exhausting weekends being around my almost-4-year-old daughter.

I hate that because you shouldn't need to recuperate from spending time with your kid. At least, a good parent shouldn't. Right?

But I look forward to Mondays, to having the house empty and quiet with no guilt over taking as many naps as I need. I learned over the past year or so not to schedule acupuncture or other non-urgent appointments on Mondays after repeatedly canceling on my acupuncturist when I felt too exhausted to drive on Mondays.

So I was quite dismayed when I answered the phone around midday today to hear the receptionist at my daughter's preschool say Ellie needed to be picked up early today.

Not only do I have my usual ailments, but I still have my cold/flu bug that returned with a vengeance on Saturday.

Ellie wasn't sick. It wasn't an emergency -- she was just being contrary and refusing to use the bathroom before naptime, disturbing the other children who were already on their cots by running around the room and screaming.

Sigh.

It's not surprising since she was very challenging this morning too. But I had hoped the peer pressure at school would make her more cooperative there than she had been at home.

Part of being a parent is loving your child even when they are frustrating and irritating. And I do.

I do even though just a minute ago, my darling angel flipped the power button on my surge protector, causing my laptop to shut down unexpectedly. I do. Really. Even when I want to throttle her.

But I really miss the quiet Monday I thought I was going to have today, and that I really, really needed today.


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