Today I choose to laugh...

[LuminousMom]

 Secret: Most days, at least once a day, I feel like screaming out loud. Pulling my hair, throwing a book on the floor, screaming. I don't do it, because it would scare the crap out of the kids, guinea pig, cat, dog, and neighbors... but I feel like it. At least once a day.

One activity which makes me feel like screaming? Grocery shopping with the kids. Talk about stress... in order to get everything needed into the cart, I have to use one of those 20 foot long "kid cart" monstrosities. It has the turning radius of a Suburban. We start our trip by arguing about shoes and coats. DD wants her "pink princess boots" but they are wet because she insisted in stepping in EVERY puddle on the block on our walk. So we have to go to white tennis shoes... this pisses her off to no end, so now shes going to protest every action I make. Socks? PINK NOT YELLOW! Coat? BLUE NOT PINK! What to bring? BLANKET, NO BOOK, NO BLANKET!!

On to the car. "I DO IT MYSELF" is the new mantra, apparently. She has to OPEN the door to my SUV. CLIMB into the SUV. BUCKLE herself (which she cant actually do). It takes 15 minutes just to get her in her damn carseat. If I intervene, she screams bloody F*ing murder and I know, I know I should.. if DH is there I do.. but its TOO MUCH to handle by myself since the screaming goes on for an hour. Meanwhile, DS just trudges along in his adorable toddler way, saying "mommy whys she so loud?"

On the road! FINALLY! Woops.. forgot we have to stop at Lowes and get paint first... after the kids taking one of just about every paint sample in the store, and I stand at the counter being ignored for 10 minutes, I have to explain for another 15 minutes what all the tubes on the ceiling are. They asked me 40 times. I'm not kidding. WHAT ARE THOSE MOM?! WHAT ARE THE ONES NEXT TO IT?! WHATS THE WHITE ONE DO? WHATS THE RED ONE DO? WHATS THE BLACK ONE DO?! WHYS THEY UP THERE?! MOMMY?! MOMMMMMMMMMMMMY?!!!

Right here is where I would normally purse my lips and start saying under my breath "be good or we're turning this cart around...." but instead... I burst out laughing. (air conditioner, I said. Good enough.)  Maybe its the lack of sleep.. this was a slightly maniacal laugh. Maybe its that I know I have 48 more hours alone with them before I will get a second to myself.. but all I could do was laugh. And you know what? It helped. Sometimes I really forget to just RELAX. I constantly worry about keeping them polite and quiet and in line.. and in doing that, I forget that they are KIDS and they are allowed to be a bit louder and a bit obnoxious.. what do I care what the contractor in aisle 8 thinks?

Walmart was alot easier today. When they asked annoyingly for granola bars 100 times, I said no and left it at that. When DD let out a yelp... I just laughed it off and told her that was a very silly noise for a big girl to make. When DS insisted on holding the plastic bags as I loaded them with veggies... and dropped every single one every single time... I giggled. When they kicked the cart every 3 seconds like clockwork I told them "good rhythm". When we passed the SEVEN aisles full of candy, and they started moaning loudly for lollipops, I smiled and ignored it. And an AMAZING thing happened.. we got out of there without buying one thing that wasn'ton my list. No hot wheels, no candy, no granola bars, no crap. I wasn't stressed, I didn't feel like screaming, and I had a smile on my face. I just... rose above it.

I should try smiling and laughing more often. Sure I may have looked like a crazy person.. but life is too short to be so stressed all the time.

Add A Comment

[BrokeLove]

Oct. 23, 2009 at 6:15 PM

hehe!! Sometimes laughing helps so much..

[LuminousMom]

Oct. 23, 2009 at 9:15 PM

Especially when you are trying to paint the living room with toddlers and no help! LOL

(Original Poster)

[Teresagreb]

Oct. 25, 2009 at 11:40 AM

Girl, I feel your pain......and relief!  It's funny, I do exactly that (the laughing, etc.) and even though some people look at me funny, I just don't care anymore.  My sanity is far more important than any stranger having a nice, quiet, pleasant shopping trip.  With that said, it's not like my kids scream and raise hell, I'm just saying it's nice to just relax and let the kids be kids.