Lance and I took a trip for our anniversary, and my mom stayed with the kids.  She took them up to the YMCA to play and get a rest.  There the ladies told my mom how different I was from the other moms.  That yes, I was up there Monday through Friday, but I was present and involved and into my kids.  They could tell by how I talked about them, the things we did together and the fact that they were always with me.  They felt qualified to say that because they saw lots of moms who weren’t like that.  I admit, it made me feel great.  And I’m sure my mom must have had a sense of pride in her heart to hear something great about her adult daughter.

I wish I had some of that mom pride swelling in me.

Last night I took the boys to a party.  It was at a restaurant, and my boys certainly livened things up.  They ran, started a game of chase.  Served enormously inappropriate amounts of food and were rude when I tried to sneak some to Sunshine to make sure none was wasted.

Then one stole a cupcake from the arrangement.

We hadn’t sung Happy Birthday.  Or blown out the candles.  Generally those two go together.

Nobody else was eating cupcakes.

The hostess was gracious.  I was a bit miffed, the kid isn’t dumb, he knows how these things work.

It went downhill from there.  One had a meltdown because I took another to the bathroom, then another meltdown when I didn’t take off enough cheese from his burger.  He’s not my child with a dairy intolerance.

During all of this, Sunshine kept walking over to the food stand and stealing buns from the sliders.  Leaving a ton of sliders without tops.

While speaking with the hostess, her son ran up and was clearly upset.  Some boy was trying to steal the cupcakes.

You know that feeling when you just know it’s your kid?  I had it.  I knew it.  The cupcake thief was at it again.

Whether or not he actually took another cupcake, I can’t be sure of.  What he did was to torment the boy and another girl it turns out, and act like he was, touched several of them.

Another mom came over and pointed him out as the cuprit and didn’t hear me speak up that I would take care of it.

Becuase she was too busy calling him a “horrible kid.”

First things first.  EFF HER.

I’ll admit he acted like a shit, but her behavior of calling out a kid, my kid, was more disturbing.  She didn’t realize other people could hear her?

We see kids act like jerks all the time.  And yes, we talk about it.  But come on…as an adult, steer the kid away, tell his mom.  Then on the drive home, tell your husband about the kid.  (I myself don’t drag my husband to kid parties.  I’m cool like that.)  Don’t make a stupid comment like that in front of a parent you don’t even know.  Cause as it turned out I was parent of horrible kid.

That said, I don’t think I’ve felt more down about my children.  Ever.  It’s been a really crappy year so far.  I’ll not divulge my children’s business online, but the three in school have not started off their school year in a manner that beams pride.  When the best thing you can say is that one has straight A’s that’s not much.

I came home last night and handed them over to Lance.  It’s not something I generally do.  But I knew that if I took care of showers, I would yell at them the entire time.  I’m exhausted at kids who don’t listen at all.  I’m exhausted due to kids that are irresponsible.  And I won’t tolerate a kid who teases another child to the point that the kid has to run to his mom.  I hate bully moves of any sort.

I’m exhausted in general.  I think we’re all adjusting to Lance’s new schedule which in theory has the same hours, but gives us less time with him.  Even while I was doing everything with the boys in the afternoon, he was still here.  I could leave Sunshine napping, someone playing.  That’s not the case any longer.  Naptime isn’t happening the right way.  The transition doesn’t seem to be going well for any of us.

I’m ready for a new week.  Lance had the boys come in to apologize for their behavior and Baby Hulk came in and said, “sorrryyyyyy….I don’t know why I’m here again.”

I sent a text to my best friend and another about the incident.  Two very different people.  Both had the same response.  “Fuck Her”.  Not to be sappy, but I love my friends.

And my kids.