Ever have “those” moments? Those “WTF?” worthy parenting moments that make you wonder if you’re in the Twilight Zone or a lunatic with offspring?
Yeah. Those moments.
We’ve all had ’em. Some days are better than others, and sometimes we do things that make us question our sanity. We all have coping mechanisms that get us through until the next Parentastrophe™, don’t we?
This Friday will start a new series titled “How do you do it?” that will feature fellow mom bloggers who are sharing how THEY do it, whether it’s cleaning, organizing, grocery shopping with kids, juggling schedules, we all have kids and we all have our own unique ways to solve those sticky parenting dilemmas.
In the meantime, a few of us were conversing on some of the rather hilarious things we’ve done as parents, ways we’ve coped with our eleventy-billion kids, or embarrassing parenting mistakes we’ve made (in public or otherwise). I thought you’d like a taste of the hilarity that ensued.
Yesterday, while I was preparing dinner, I went to quiet sweet Baby V down, and instead of calling her “Sweet Baby Peanuts,” I said PENIS. And then proceeded to giggle like a teenage boy about it with my eleven-year-old. “Mom! You said PENIS! AHAHAHAHAHA!”
Christine, from From Dates to Diapers, has learned to pick her battles with her seven children:
“I very rarely leave my house with all of my kiddos in tow, and when I do I’ve been known to leave a certain blondie at the checkout counter as we make our way across town – without him. My kiddos dumped a whole bag of cheerios in the pantry today – and every single cheerio is still on the floor. We have clean clothes, but they are all piled in a giant heap, in the middle of the loft, at the top of the stairs. I spent lots of time with the kiddos today, and I tried not to yell at them, but they can be just. so. darn. frustrating. And, I didn’t cook tonight – Ray went out and got tacos for dinner.” – from her post, “How Do You Do It” in 2009.
Kadi, from Our Seven Seeds, now performs a roll call before she leaves anywhere, and learned that the hard way:
“I left a kid at home because I counted seven heads and took off. One of the kids that I counted was my friend’s kid, who has dark hair. Noooo idea how I mistook him for one of my blond kids, except that he was in the van so he got counted! Now we do roll call and I call out each kid’s name before we leave. Lesson learned.”
It seems, I have so many kids, I don’t even know which are mine and which aren’t anymore.
“I was just at SeaWorld two weeks ago, and I scared the CRAP out of a kid because he was standing in with us all, and I reached down, stroked his head and said in a baby-ish voice, “What do you think, baby?” THAT KID JUMPED OUT OF HIS SKIN, like, “WHO ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOUR HANDS ON ME.” HA! Oh my God, I was so embarrassed. I have so many kids around me all the time I don’t even know who’s mine anymore!!”
Stacie, of The Divine Miss Mommy, had a little help the other day, and it wasn’t from her kids.
“I used my drill sergeant voice the other day at ALDI telling my kids to help me with the groceries and stop playing. All of sudden these two dads started helping too. I was so surprised. The one guy said, ‘We recognize that voice, we knew it was time to help!’ I love that!”
Kadi also adds:
“I have been known to yell at other people’s kids to get in the car!”
We’ve been there ourselves, too.
A few weeks ago, my husband yelled out the door for our oldest to “STOP TEXTING!” while she was babysitting the neighbor’s kids. But, it wasn’t my daughter. The woman he yelled at gave him the stank face. Ha!
Alright, now it’s YOUR turn? What crazy stuff have you said or done? C’mon, spill it!
And don’t forget to be on the lookout for Friday’s post, “How do you do it?“