• Posted By landismom @ 5/31/2005 08:08:00 PM • • •
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Two Toothbrushes Up, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Custard Stand
I know, two toothbrushes up* is no way for a middle-class white girl to go through life. But my mom is coming for a visit this week, and that always makes me stressed. Today, however, is the end of my single parenthood (at least for a while), as landisdad is now free to be home both in the mornings and the evenings (ain't we got fun). Tonight was my last night of picking up both the kids from two different schools, cooking dinner, resolving sibling crises, engineering baths, supervising homework, making sure that teeth are brushed, jammies are clean, TV is short, and reading a jillion bedtime stories. By. My. Self. Oh wait, did I mention collapsing with the scotch? And the good scotch, too, not that crap my dad brought over one time.
To all the single moms out there, you are the bomb. I don't know how you do this shit on a regular basis. Even if I wanted to get divorced, I'd never make it through the first month of being alone. Yesterday, (yes, on Memorial Day!) landisdad went to work at 9 in the morning, and came home at (I think) 2:18 a.m. And then left to go back to work at 6:30 today, and still isn't home yet tonight. Let's all clink glasses to celebrate the end of this massive project, shall we?
And did I mention my mom is coming? And that I'm a teensy bit stressed out about it? And that our house looks like a bomb went off in it, and that doesn't help? Deep breaths.
So I decided over the weekend that instead of approaching the stress in my normal fashion (read, becoming a total bitch to everyone who loves me), I would instead make every effort to be super-nice to people (it's a lesson I learned from the Bernstein Bears, I'm ashamed to admit). And you know what? It worked! I was super nice to the kids, and instead of being whiny and demanding, they were nicer to me (well, except that the SP is of course almost 2!) I was super nice to landisdad, and he actually got his work done faster (yes, that is faster than it could have been) because he wasn't spending all of his time wondering if he was going to have to get in a fight with me when he got home. And I was nicer to myself, because I didn't have to spend all that time yelling at anyone.
Tonight, the Bee asked me on the way home if we could go to our local custard stand (aka ice cream stand, for those not in the know). And to celebrate the end of single parenthood, I said yes. After dinner, the three of us traipsed down to the custard stand, and got some cones. On the way there, we saw some neighbors with kids roughly the same age as the BB and the SP, and we stopped and played with them for awhile. We got some cones, and walked home, and I gave the kids a (now much-needed bath), and got them changed into pajamas, and put them to bed (with no TV, since we got the custard). And now here I sit, happily blogging when I should be writing something for work, but what the hell.
Because landisdad's single parenthood? Starts tomorrow.
*And I also know, I have no street cred. Still, that's how I feel sometimes.
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