The Snot Mom Posse was delightfully absent from the story time scene this morning. We have wound up in a group that I can actually deal with and perhaps, just perhaps make a friend…that is if my daughter can manage to pull it together and not be that kid again next time.
There is a little boy who is infamous for bad behavior. Everyone in the library knows him. His mother holds the world record for the number of times she repeats her child’s name in 10 seconds (that’s 109 times, fyi). I see them at Target and go the other way. Well, today his mother was looking at me with pity in her eyes. I know she was thinking to herself that she was glad he was at least not as awful as my daughter. Her behavior today was out of control and it has left me feeling like a total failure of a mother and doubting whether my best is even good enough. I think I might just suck at this motherhood thing.
While all the other kids were pretending to be doggies (her most favorite thing to do, mind you) my kid swatted at the librarian and shouted “No! I’ll never do it! Never!” and dove underneath a table with her hands over her ears. After dragging her out of the room for a refresher course on manners and appropriate behavior, it seemed that we were clear on the whole good/bad thing. Oohhh, but we weren’t. After being good for like a minute, she refused to sit in a circle and participate with the others. Instead, she wanted her doggie impression to be the center of attention and got into the middle of the room and spun around in circles on her hands and knees while barking loudly…disrupting the story which is strictly forbidden.
Needless to say, we left after that.
Upon exiting the children’s room, my little sweetheart proceeded to say the word “stupid” repeatedly.
Maybe she’s coming down with my cold, maybe she was overwhelmed by all the activity, maybe she spends too much time with the 33-90 year old set, maybe there’s something wrong with her brain, maybe everyone has one of these days with a two year old, maybe I’m a horrible mother, maybe it’s all those things, maybe it’s none of them. Whatever the deal is, I hope to hell we do better next time.
Holy fuck.
Is 2:26 pm too early for a martini?
My favorite library story with Faryn…there I was, minding my own business, standing and smiling at the circulation counter with all of our books and dvds, when I turn around to see my daughter “picking flowers” out of the artfully displayed plants. When I gasped and went to grab her, my purse fell onto the floor–with all of it’s ridiculous contents dispersing into 1 MILLION pieces around the computer desks and the students working there. Ahem, now 25 pairs of eyes are on me as my removal of Faryn has now incited her to scream at the top of her lungs in the 2 story tall open foyer of the library, “NO MOMMY! NO MOMMY! AAAAGH!” slapping and scratching my face (drawing blood) as she tried to run out of the front door. I grabbed her by her overalls (literally carrying her by the straps) as she writhed like a fish out of water–still screaming–and tried not to beat her in front of everyone. By this time everyone in THE LIBRARY is looking at me…including the security guards. I rush to gather my purse, while still holding the banshee, and then she realizes that her movie is NOT coming home with her. OH MY GOD–I know what a demon looks like. We went directly outside and I had to restrain her in order for her to calm down (like when I was a teacher at the freakshow school–at least I was professionally trained to do such a task). Once she was calm, I told her that she had to apologize immediately to EVERYONE or she was NEVER allowed to go to the library again. So, there is a happy ending. She did, and we got to go back.
Wow, sounds like you could use a day at work to rest! Come to work tomorrow and I promise not to repeatedly call you stupid!
No! I’ll never do it! Never!