On Thursday we had a bad day. Goblin woke up in a destructive mood. If you have a child who, from time to time has these moods you will recognise the description: Everything will end in destruction - whether its a game, or a toy, or a conversation. Goblin will intentionally destroy his own constructions, throw toys, ruin games we are playing when he has appeared to be enjoying them, and he will pick fights and argue that black is white.
On Thursday he woke up in one of those moods and unfortunately he woke at 5.30am. Now I can handle Goblin's destructive moods when I am calm and zen, but I am a mummy who needs her sleep. I'm like a bear with a sore head if I am woken any time before 6am. So we basically had the perfect storm.
After a few hours of unproductive play and multiple tantrums (from both of us), I sat near my child resenting his presence entirely. I started to mull on the fact that parenting is like no other relationship in your life. If anyone else treated you the way your kid sometimes does, you would simply walk away, and probably not talk to that person for quite some time. But as a parent you are forced to stay close to them to make sure they stay safe, and even give them a loving hug and reassurance, despite the fact they are hitting, kicking, screaming, spitting, arguing, sulking, etc.
Following a large period of feeling very sorry for myself I came to a realisation that cheered me a little.
Looking after an angry preschooler is exactly the same as trying to get an extremely drunk friend home safely.
Sometimes they will be hilarious and you will really enjoy their company, all-be-it coupled with anxiety that at any minute they might veer off into the road or a krispy kreme doughnut shop. But other times they will get mean, and shout at you, pick a fight with you for no apparent reason, or worse lash out at a complete stranger, and then cry. You really want to abandon them. You really want to walk away and say screw this it's not my problem. But you know in their current state of inebriation they are likely to fall onto the train line and be squished and you'd never be able to live with your guilt. So you stay with your friend and silently seethe as they irritate the crap out of you.
And that thought somehow lightened my mood on an otherwise horrible day, so I thought I'd share it with you.
(*incase you are wondering, the next day Goblin woke in a great mood, and we had an awesome day)
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What a hilarious yet accurate analogy! I completely agree because I have days where I wish I could get just a few minutes to myself without all that noise and a throbbing head. Thank you for featuring my post :)
ReplyDeleteThis post made my day. I'll keep that picture in mind next time I'm about to implode.
ReplyDeleteSpot on analogy! The Hubby and I always joke about how our daughter's cranky days are just like having a drunk sorority girl in the house! One minute she's hanging all over us all lovey-dovey like, then suddenly she's crashing around crying and breaking stuff! ;)
ReplyDeleteIt make those days a little less unbearable if you have a way to laugh about it (well and lots of coffee)!
(PS Thanks for the feature!!!)