Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Where does a mother go to resign?

I must admit I've been having a little bit of an "off" day, well actually a couple of off days. I have been going through a teenage phase of "I don't want to!".(actually that sounds more like my 3 year old) When my alarm goes off at 5.30 am, I just don't want to get up; I get to the kitchen and just don't want to make breakfast or lunches or fight over who hasn't even taken a bite of their food in the last half an hour it's been in front of them. I don't want to argue over who gets to put the toothpaste on the toothbrushes or which shoes go with that outfit or who gets to sit in front in the car. Every day we pretty much follow the same routine and have the same arguments and fights every day, it's become almost like clockwork. I'm tired of playing seargent major 24/7.
I am actually not really sure if I'm just too uptight, I must admit I can be a bit of a perfectionist. I absolutely love my family to bits, but surely any normal mother needs some place or time to just get away and say no! I don't want to.
Mark and I recently had a bit of an argument about "time out". I had asked him to please be home at a specific time one Friday afternoon so that I could take Kade to the Youth group at our church. Low and behold if I don't call him 15 min before he's supposed to be home and he's sitting in a pub around the corner. To make a long story short, if possible, he accused me of only allowing him "time out" when it suited me and my daily schedule, admittedly I would prefer it if he came home after work, helped out as much as he felt he could and have the rest of the night off once the kids were in bed. This clearly did not suit him. I threw one straight back saying that I am only allowed to take time off when it suits all of them and lets just for a moment imagine the chaos if I were to decide right here and now to just walk out the door and go shopping because it was convenient for me at the time and, well, stuff all of you!!
I suppose what gets me down is that while he is able to get up and go on a whim, because I am always there, but it becomes a different story when the tables are turned. In order for me to plan a night out , I have to make sure he's actually going to be in town; make sure that he doesn't have any plans and then I usually make sure the kids are all bathed, fed, and almost put to bed before I try to leave.
While being a mom and wife is my top priority and as my own mother reminds me ..constantly... a mother's job is to sacrifice, put a smile on your dial and just get on with it without complaining, because that might push him away and then he'll look elsewhere......Although life and love will always come with sacrifice, I still can't help wondering if being a mother and wife means having to sacrifice your entire being until you no longer know who you are, what you enjoy anymore and wake up to realise you don't have a friend in the world because you've sacrificed them all.
There are certainly days when you wouldn't trade your life or your family for anything in the entire world and then there are days where you stop and think , hold on, please tell me where did I actually sign up for this, stop the bus please, it's just going too fast.
To make a long story even shorter, I'm really tired and would just love a day off, to go out and spend a day being pampered and spoilt, doing what ever I please and then of course coming home to my happy brady bunch, a spotlessly clean house and a three course dinner.

1 comment:

Normal Mom said...

Ok, just as an afterthought I have just realised how terribly depressing this blog is, note to self, that I am going to put a smile on my dial and tomorrow WILL be better!!