Thoughts on motherhood, marriage, education, and life in general...

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I am a mom, a wife, and a teacher-librarian. I have four boys at home: Main Man (44), #1 (14), #2 (11), and #3 (7). Although they keep me very busy, I also look after a library for an elementary student population of 500 (give or take). I love my family; I love my job.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Of Cabbages and Kings, Toilets and Lightbulbs

This li'l ol' Oscar party of ours tends to cause a fair bit of stress in the days leading up. Both Main Man and I are concerned that things be great for our guests. Notice I don't write that we wish they were perfect; we know that's impossible.

Often, we have at least one knock-down, drag-'em-out argument during this time.

***I must take a brief commercial break to point out that my philosophy of arguing in front of the kids is that it's fine as long as two conditions are met: 1) No name calling or swearing, and 2) they should also see you make up. ***

Thursday morning, Main Man went to use the washroom just before leaving for work. It irks him to no end when one of the boys forgets to flush, so - sure enough - he blows a gasket because the toilet isn't flushed.

I'm a little irritable myself, so I point out that whenever his little pet peeve happens, we all have to jump to make it better, but when someone leaves a light on in an empty room (my pet peeve), I must go and turn it off myself.

Suffice it to say - we discuss this at length all the way in the car as I drop him off at work.

After we arrive at his office and he jumps out (You all would have been very proud of me; as angry as I was, I still slowed down for him to get out!), #3's voice pipes up from the back seat of the car, "Okay, are we finished arguing about toilets and lightbulbs yet?"

6 comments:

Dino said...

arguing about lightbulbs and toilets? it does sound kind of silly when you hear it from your kid doesn't it.

Library Mama said...

It sure does, Katy. It sure does.

Suzan Abrams, email: suzanabrams@live.co.uk said...

Glad you had a wonderful party, LM.
Yes, very proud of you.:-)
btw I wonder if your adventures with No3 & the rest of the family, wouldn't make for some lively reading in the Letter pages of women's magazines.
Why don't you have a shot at sending some of these clips in? They pay well too.

Library Mama said...

Susan - You flatter me. It's never crossed my mind to send these little ditties anywhere.

Oops! Come to think of it, I have. We sent two or three stories about #3 in to Reader's Digest once. We never heard back.

Lowa said...

I was going to say the same thing as Katy. It is often a reality check when our kids say things like this, eh??

Makes me wonder how petty and silly we must seem to them. But dnag it, we want to make our point too, right!?!?

This was cute:)

Library Mama said...

I know, Lowa. As my mom often used to say, "Out of the mouths of babes."

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