Thursday, July 1, 2010

Thursday Thirteen: Not. Phased.


I'm realizing two things come with more children and more motherhood experience, of course more insanity, but also a surprised increase in not being phased or bothered by things my children do.

1.Running up and down the aisles in the movies.
Not phased. After all, she wasn't screaming

2.Crawling under the table at Chick-Fil-A to get to the other side.
Not phased. He was still within boundaries of where we were sitting.

3.My daughter wanting to wear her princess dress every where, including the doctor's office, the grocery store and to drop her big brother off at school.
Not phased and no problem. She's dressed and she's 3, she can get away with it.

4.My son, the recent addition to the video game addicts club, asking to play his Play Station every second he is awake and throwing a temper tantrum every time I turn it off.
Not phased. I'm mom, I make the rules.

5.My daughter wanting to help feed the baby his rice cereal and carrots, most of which he ended up wearing then actually eating.
Of course this was under my supervision, but not phased. They were happy and I was able to get something else done.

6.-12.Climbing under the seat. Crying in public.Yelling in the grocery store. Fighting with her brother. Having a breakdown because he can't find Lightning McQueen at 6:oo in the morning. Trying to get one book and knocking down the entire three shelves of books. Loads of Laundry and toys every where.

Still, not phased, not phased, not phased, not phased, not phased, not phased. And oh yeah, not phased.

It's not that I don't care if my children act like animals. Whether it's the possibility that I have become numb to their outward bursts of craziness or I'm naive to the fact that I often feel like a ring leader in a circus act, I am trying to put things into perspective, to preserve a little bit of my own sanity.

And although there are still plenty of things I should really take with a grain of salt, I am getting better.

13.Recently we went to the movies with a friend of mine and her daughter. I know there seems to be a lot of that lately, but when its a free weekly summer movie, free for kids and adults, its hard to say no. The movie this week was E.T, my childhood tear-jerking favorite. So how could I not resist the opportunity to give my children the same experience? But I may have overlooked the fact that they are a couple years younger than I was when I first saw that movie, which means their attention span for movies lasts a good 45 minutes. That time limit became evident when at the 45 minute mark, to the second, my son asked if it was almost over, and my daughter realized that after question #532, this movie had no princesses and wasn't getting any better. Although E.T. won me over by his alien appearances, his wrinkly skin and long fingers, made Sophia immediately duck behind the person in front of her and cover her eyes with her hands every time he was on screen. And then around the hour mark, my son and daughter made about a half  dozen trips to the bathroom in 5 minutes. And neither of them actually went to the bathroom.

But I wasn't phased. The movie was free, so we left.

I even shocked myself when we went to Chick- Fil- A, and both my kids climbed under the table to get to the other side. My daughter keep climbing over my son's friend to talk to her mom, to ask her never ending random questions, with breaks to turn to me and ask about 6,000 times if she could play in the Chick-Fil-A play land. The play land, might I add, that was swarming with kids from the movie who were releasing all that bottled up energy from sitting way too long.

And in the midst of the chaos, I looked around and thought to myself.

I can do this. Outings with all my children, Sophia asking endless questions, my son climbing under the seat and the baby getting whiny and restless.

My blood pressure didn't spike.

My head didn't spin.

And I was still relatively calm.

As I type this blog of procrastination, I have dirty dishes in the sink, clean dishes in the dishwasher that needed to be put away, 4 loads of laundry decorating my dining room table and a path of toys that stretch from my foyer into the back room.

Time has really gotten away from me today. But you know what, it'll get done and I'll get to it when I can.

Maybe I am finally beginning to realize, that if the dishes don't get done right away, the toys don't get picked up until the kids go to bed, and one of them has a breakdown in the middle of the grocery store, life will go on.

Someone must have spiked my drink with Xanax.

I'm. just. not. phased.


On another note. Looking for things to do for this July 4th weekend. I'll have my list of July 4th Family Fun things to do in South Jersey/Philadelphia area tomorrow!


To learn more about this blog meme and to view other participants, click here.

10 comments:

  1. I think it's fantastic you remain calm! Your kids are adorable :-)

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  2. It's funny how motherhood can change you. After living through that I ironically find myself less tolerant of other people's children at times.



    Enjoy your Thursday.
    http://harrietandfriends.com/2010/06/are-you-ready-for-the-fourth-of-july/

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  3. I am phased just reading this. I admire you and all the mother's who hold it down every day because I babysat my nephew one night and thought the world was ending. Nice post.
    Have a restful 4th!

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  4. Ha Ha, I think you were trying to convince yourself to be phased with #6-12 :)

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  5. Visiting from Thursday Thirteen! Great list! That is awesome that you can stay so calm. I see so many parents "lose it" when their kids do some of those things.

    Have a great day!

    :)
    Rachel
    http://averyfan.blogspot.com/

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  6. I can relate to every one of these. I'm glad my kids are grown at this stage in my life. I don't think I'd have the energy for the 4 of them now. Fun list. Happy T13!

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  7. Looks like the kids have you pretty well broken in. What scares me is that I'm no longer phased when the police drop my son off at home. Unhappy, but not phased.

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  8. Yeah, I don't get phased by much. As long as my kid isn't bothering other people (at least not much), then I let him do a lot of things. I love the one about crying about Lightning McQueen at 6 am - I think taht may have actually HAPPENED in my house today!

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  9. Great idea for T13. I've been a mom for almost 14 years and I would still be phased by some of these.

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  10. I am also learning about not getting phased by things. Parenting sure does change a person!

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