I am a slacker mom

Some of that inspiration is returning. I was going to elaborate on why, once again, my kids got a bargain-rate mom rather than the latest, greatest model with all the gadgets.

Yesterday we had some boys (2 brothers) over to play with my son These boys are wonderful. They sword-fight with Christian, tell him about Star Wars (he hasn’t seen any of the movies) and they have all just discovered the Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. They’re all about the same age—one of them has been 5 for a while and his little brother just turned 4. My son is 4 and a half, so he fits perfectly.

The boys’ mother is great. She is smart, funny, she does some sort of consulting work from home so she is always home with the boys. She is the latest, greatest model.

As they were preparing to leave, we were talking about future play dates. I mentioned that our mornings, at least on MWF, will be a little busier now that Christian is starting preschool. (I was trying to control my own excitement at the whole prospect!) I thought her oldest was going to kindergarten but not yet. They will both be homes chooled at the first-grade level this year.

I love this supermom; really, I do. I just feel like such a slacker after each play date with her and her kids! This must be apparent outwardly as well. I offered to just have the boys over for pizza and a playdate so she and her husband could have some kid-free time. My daughter was scheduled to be at a sleepover all night and hubbie was out-of-town so I thought I could handle 3 boys under 5 for a couple of hours. She asked if she could come too.

I’m not begrudging her some time here! I honestly like spending time with her—she cracks me up! However, if someone offered to have both of my kids over for a Friday night play date—where they’d get to play with a friend and I could go somewhere else—I would drop them off and try to remember to kiss them before I went running back out the door!

It is not just in comparison to this mom. I am a slacker! We have spent the entire day in the house today. The kids have not minded at all! It is raining and N, in fact, came up with a list of things we could do here so we would not have to worry about C getting wet. (Neither of them want to head back to the hospital waiting rooms to get a new cast if this one gets wet!!)

I have not ignored them. I have played countless games of Sonic the Hedgehog with C and UNO and 2-handed solitaire with N. However, I have also spent much more time on the computer than I do on a normal Saturday and I feel the guilt. We should have gone to a museum, an indoor playground or a movie.

I just have so much more energy and ideas today that I want to write them down. Do you want to know the real reason I am so energetic today? (Other than the pot of coffee I’ve consumed?) Do you? Do you? Do you?

It’s simple. I am the ultimate slacker mom. Today is the day I have been waiting for!
(For a long while now, I have been wondering when the day would come when the kids would be old enough to just get up, get a bowl of cereal and flip on the cartoons while I slept in on a Saturday morning.) Today was the day!!! Well….almost. I helped C brush his teeth and I put the DVD on but then N got up, settled with him on the couch and I left them watching Spongebob for 45 glorious minutes while I went back to bed!

They never missed me.

Only a slacker mom would let her kids watch Spongebob.
Only a slacker mom would leave her kids alone downstairs while she went to sleep!
(In my own defense, my room is right above where they were watching TV so I would have heard any commotion.)

Maybe tomorrow I’ll try it again and see if they even get that bowl of cereal on their own too!
(I know—they’ll pick the sugary cereal so then I’ll be endangering their dental health but they just might survive, I just might sleep and the world just might be a better place!)
The possibilities are endless!