Sometimes Things Suck

Can we just take a moment and discuss how much motherhood sucks sometimes?  Today was a colossally awful day.  Like on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being fantastic and 10 being the pits, today was like a 15.  No joke.  It was just one frustration after another.  I can't speak for the rest of mother-kind out there, but days like this leave me drained and exhausted in every way possible.  What made today a 15?  Let's review, shall we:

My day started off normally and without incident-got the boy up, fed and out the door for school on time, got the little lady up and fed, normal morning-time stuff at our house.  Around 10, as I was running my 3-year-old through the bath, because, hey, wearing our cereal is so much more fun that actually eating it, I missed a call from my son's school.  I listened to the message and I swear all of the blood left my face when I heard the words, "Mrs. Blahblah, this is Principal What's-her-face.  There was a rather seriously incident with your son and he's now in my office.  Please call me back as soon as you're able."  Panicked, I immediately called the school and was put through to the principal, who then put my cherub-faced darling on the phone to tell me what he had done to land him in such hot water.  Now, for the sake of his dignity later in life (stuff lives forever on the internet, amiright?), I will forgo all of the details of his crime, but suffice it to say, it was one of those "You did WHAT?!?!" moments, logged into the book of "Things I Ever Thought I'd Hear Myself Say." 

Ashamed and embarrassed, I got off of the phone, finished getting my daughter dressed and we headed out the door to take care of our morning errands. First stop, the dreaded Walmart.  Now, I try to avoid going to Walmart like the plague, but sometimes saving money just wins out and when that happens, I try to go with only 1 kid in tow if possible.  I only needed to exchange something today, so it should have been a quick in-and-out trip, right? Wrong. So very, very wrong.  I stood in line for over 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES.  A half hour of my life, people.  There are much better ways I could have spent 30 minutes than in line at Walmart to exchange some defective hair color.  FINALLY it's my turn, I walk up to the counter holding my squirming 3-year-old, who, by now, has completely exhausted any patience her tiny person contained, explain to the lady that I had purchased a box of defective color and would like to get a replacement as I had her the box and my receipt (from YESTERDAY, mind you.  It wasn't like I bought this weeks ago and am just now getting around to it.)  "We don't do exchanges for hair color, even if it was defective."  Me, blinking confusedly at her: "Is that stated somewhere in your return policy?" "No, we just won't do it," as she shoves my things back at me, clearly signaling that she's done helping me and I should be on my way. Beyond annoyed and fuming, I walked away before angry words were said.  I called the store from my car, asking to speak to a manager but unfortunately, one was not available at that moment because they were all in their daily meeting (which hey, I get.  You're running a rather large store and I'm sure there's a lot that goes into that), but the nice (and I'm not being sarcastic, she really was nice) lady suggested calling back in an hour or so. Fast forward a couple hours to when I actually have a moment to sit down and make a phone call, I call the store back, again asking to speak to a manager.  I get put on hold while they supposedly go to find someone-ANOTHER half hour later, I'm still waiting, no one has picked up, so I just hung up.  An hour of my life has now been wasted and I've gotten nowhere, so I decide I'll just go back and find someone myself after I pick up the boy from school.  Within 5 minutes of walking in the store, I have found a manager, explained to him the issue from that morning along with the ridiculous phone call and he has helped me do my exchange.  Now, I'm very grateful to the nice manager for helping me get everything straightened out, but seriously, couldn't someone have just helped me from the get-go, instead of being rude and wasting my time and making me come back, this time with 2 kids in tow, who feel it is their job in life to touch everything in sight?

Fast forward a bit to dinnertime, which as all of us mamas know, is second only to bedtime in terms of suckiness.  The endless mantra of "eat your food" while your kid sits there and comes up with every delay tactic known to man, even though what you've made is their favorite thing in the whole wide world. Tonight was one of those nights.  The 3-year-old has developed this lovely (and by lovely, I mean annoying as you-know-what) habit where she "chews" (it's in quotes because there is no chewing going on whatsoever, it just sits in her mouth) one bite for like 20 minutes. Well, tonight it was more like 40.  For one piece of broccoli.  Which she does like. Which she then gagged herself on, causing about half of her dinner to come up all over her fresh, clean PJ's and hair.  Guess who had two baths today?  

Add to that the whining that ensued from the boy once we got home because he lost tv and toys for the rest of the day due to his choices at school and that, my friends, is why both of my kids were in bed by 7:30 tonight.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I love me kids.  And I mean that, no sarcasm at all.  They are the best things in my life in addition to my wonderful husband.  I love being a mom and more importantly, I love being their mom.  I wouldn't go back on that decision ever.  And I really do love being able to stay home and raise them.  I know so many women who want to be able to stay home with their kids can't and I know that I am blessed to be able to do so.  I'm not trying to complain and say that my kids are awful and that my life sucks because I'm a mom. Because it doesn't.  And I know it doesn't.  There are just those days where by bedtime, you just sit and think, What the heck, universe?!?! And it's also nice to be able to vent a little about those awful days.  Motherhood is the best and hardest job I have ever had.  Being a mom is tough.  There's a lot no one warns you about and there's days like this where all I want to do right now is eat my weight in ice cream, which, let's face it, would not be the best of choices.  But I also know I'm not alone in feeling like this.  I know there are so many other moms out there who have monumentally awful days like I just had.  And there are some moms who have even worse days than the one I just lived through. Know that you're not alone!  

Have you had a monumentally bad day lately?