Ever get reminded of adult problems when your kids are having kid problems? Ever get that feeling while you are lecturing your child about something that you are actually lecturing yourself? This blog post is starting to sound like an ad for a prescription. :-p But it’s not, unfortunately. I’ll call these Freaky Friday moments, like the movie. I get that feeling quite often as well as my children frequently turn the tables on me mid-lecture or even lecture me themselves now. In this way, we keep each other in check. I can’t get away with anything anymore and neither can they – not without a good lecture, that is. I even have a little box I like to stand on – just kidding. Here are some of our Freaky Friday moments:
Getting injured:
One morning my daughter got hurt while monkeying around with her sister. She hurt her bum. So, I unwisely, decide to lecture her after her other sisters head to school. She was complaining about her bum hurting and I told her she has to be careful when monkeying around because that’s when she usually gets hurt (not my best logic, I know, b/c monkeying around implies not being careful, but whatever – details..). Her response: ya, well you need to be careful in the shower because you could be hurt in there – I saw a commercial about it. Really?!? Was it one of those fallen and can’t get up commercials? B/c that’s not funny.. Touche.. Don’t mess with that one – she’s got ammo.
Words of wisdom:
Words of wisdom from my child one morning when I was particularly grouchy: “You just have to be like Frosty the Snowman!”. She begins singing in a cute, chipper, and loud 4 year old voice before I’d had my coffee: “Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul…” I had to keep myself from explaining, “but he was a fairy tale they say..” and even if he wasn’t he probably had an entire pot of coffee or something else before he was that jolly. I mean, why’d he have a pipe? Now that song is back in my head – thumpetty, thump, thump, thumpetty, thump, thump is the sound of kids upstairs..
Shopping:
I was feeling very low energy one day so I decided we would just take a field trip to Wal-Mart and kill two birds with one stone. I get some groceries and play it off like it’s a fun outing to “Wally-mart”. Turns out Wal-Mart shopping with the kids takes the most energy.
I spent most of my time asking them if they are in someone’s way. I feel like I should pay someone to run them over with a shopping cart one day so that they will have an impactful moment in their life that will help them to remember to check if they are in someone’s way. Ok, that’s a little harsh – maybe just bump into them with a shopping cart and give them a dirty look or something. I’m surprised that hasn’t happened already – what usually happens is the inconvenienced customer gives me a dirty look. And I want to tell people, you don’t know how I’ve tried – trust me I feel your pain. :-p I feel like me reminding them constantly to get out of people’s way saves them from the consequences that would actually help them think for themselves.
But I digress – as I was saying – then we pass by the toy aisle and of course they NEED to spend some of their allowance money. One child was seriously considering this poop emoji stuffed pillow for her room.. Well, technically, it would match b/c her room colors are pink and brown.. I had this thought that maybe I could find some more poop themed decor for her room and make it look real put together.
This definitely parallels to adult hood. When I feel like spending some money, I spend a whole lot of time in the colored box aisle looking for the perfectly colored storage boxes or decorative pillows. I will stand there for hours staring at the pillows – it’s kind of crazy-making like shopping for toys is. And do I really need them? – no. The girls remind me of that everytime we go shopping for home decor just like I remind them of that everytime we go near a toy aisle. They are like, ugh – Mommy, you aren’t even going to put anything in the boxes! Which is true, in fact, I like the way the boxes look but I never actually get around to organizing. :-p I just like to stage the house like I’m organized but really everything is hidden in closets inside Wal-mart bags and completely unlabeled.
Making the Bed:
One night, my child’s idea of making the bed is covering it in 4 blankets and 5 strategically placed stuffed animals-and by strategically placed I mean they looked like they were set up to have a tea party. When I ask her to get in the bed she says, “How do I get in?”. Um I don’t know – very carefully.. Then, everytime a stuffed animal got knocked over she proceeded to have what appeared to be a seizure or some kind of possession for which I might need to call an exorcist.. Poor toddlers- why do they have to make life so hard for themselves? It was actually painful to watch..
But then I got to thinking that this is why I don’t actually make my bed because I sort of feel the same way with all the decorative pillows, throws,etc..😛 Now, how do I get in? I don’t want to mess this up. Maybe I’ll go sleep on the couch. We do the same thing to ourselves as adults, eh?