I remember being a child free woman of the world. I remember being able to go and do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I also remember that while I was out doing all of that I would inevitably run into Mom's with kids who were a total mess, strung across the aisle of a store, dropping things, kid screaming, and I would think, "When I'm a mom, I will never be that way."Let me run you down my checklist for today:
Awake with huge headache-check
Pull "cranky" card off of toddler mood stack-check
Run out of medicine for both myself and baby-check
Realize you forgot to put bills in the mail-check
Realize you forgot to put bills in the mail-check
Come to conclusion you will just have to fix messes next week-check
The last 2 weeks have been the same or worse than today. Don't misunderstand me, I am not complaining. My husband has been working 12+ hour days for 2 weeks because of a deadline, and Bless his soul, if he gets home before the baby has had a bath, he takes over when he hits the door. Violet has also managed to sleep through the night, every night, since coming down with croup. Plus, I get to be home with her every single day, and that is priceless.
But my point is this:
For these last couple of weeks, I have been that Mom I would see out and about. And I would love to go back in time and slap myself silly for being such a judgemental snob.
I wish I would have stopped and realized that the Mom I was so harshly judging had a sick kid, or was sick herself, and was probably out because she ran out of groceries and medicine and had no choice but to take her kids to the store. Maybe, just like me, both of the Grandma's were also sick, and her husband was at work, and all her friends with healthy kids were understandably avoiding her like the plague.
I had to run to Target the other day, and I was stopped in an aisle digging through my coupons and Violet was babbling away at me. She was getting a little loud, so I shushed her. Just then a very nice older gentleman approached us with Violet's hat in his hand and said, "You dropped this, I think that's what she was trying to tell you." I thanked him and he gave me a sweet, sympathetic smile and went back to his shopping.
That was my serving of crow pie.
I was so glad I was around him, instead of myself from the past. Old me would have given me and dirty look, or worse, just left the hat laying there.
So, today instead of feeling sorry for myself and my current conditions, I will repent for having been such a creep. And thank God, in all of His infinite wisdom, that he gave me a chance to see how wrong I was, and go forward with a changed heart.
