October 23, 2008

Mother of the Year

Have you ever had a little too much faith in a 5-yr-old? This morning while getting ready to leave the house I put Maren on Henry's bed to change her funky diaper. When the deed was done, Maren was happy and Henry was sitting right there with her, playing his Leap Frog. Against my better judgement I left the two of them on the bed while I picked up a few toys in the other room, not 10 feet away but separated by a door. My one instruction to Henry was to not let Maren fall off the bed.

Thirty seconds later I heard a thud. Scared to death I ran back into the room and there was Maren-- face down on the floor screaming. You always feel bad when your kid gets hurt. But when your kid gets hurt because of something stupid you've done-- something that every parenting book lists as the number one no-no, you feel really bad. And when that kid has half a heart, you feel really, really bad. I scooped up Maren and consoled her. Henry just looked at me and said, "Mom, you should probably watch Maren better." Good call, Henry.

After a few minutes Maren was calm and happy again. I put her in the stroller and turned around for a second to grab the keys. Before I knew it, Maren was freaking out again. I turned back to see what the heck was going on and Henry was standing there sheepishly with his finger hanging out of his mouth. "Sorry, Mommy!" Apparently Henry was trying to "get Maren's nose" and poked her in the eye. That got her going all over again.

We finally made it to the car and as I was putting Maren in I bumped her head on the handle of the car seat. I swear her head barely even touched it, but I guess PTSD got the best of her and she was off again.

Jeesh! Tomorrow's a new day, I guess!

1 comment:

A. Schoonie said...

can completely relate!