Once upon a time, I was a stay at home mom with laundry coming out of my ears and the smell of fresh baked bread wafting from my open door. Ah, the good ol days. Today you can still count on the piles of laundry but good luck finding any bread at all in my house, let alone the home made kind.
Being a working mom is a whole new world for me. I am so glad I never had to do it when my kids were younger. I don’t know how moms do it with little ones. I would have been a complete basket case. Now that my kids are older and somewhat self reliant, supposedly, I can go to work and not worry too much about the house being burnt down while I am gone. Although, I must admit…I do look through the houses in the direction of mine now and then….just in case there is smoke. Crazy.
Its kind of fun having ‘older kids.’ They can get themselves around, they can drive their younger siblings…when the fancy strikes them, and they can cook their own food. Thank goodness for that last one today. I was so darn tired after school I just made it through a chapter of homework before I crawled onto my bed and passed out. I got up just in time to take Ethan to MMA and didn’t do a thing about dinner. After a few questioning texts, the kids figured out they were on their own for substance and sallied forth to the cupboard. Yay for canned soup.
Ben is getting older too, in spite of me still treating him like a baby. I try not to, but it is hard when he says the cutest things. Tonight, he was very upset about a “violent spider” he discovered in his bathroom. He was quite certain he was going to die by morning. I calmed him down as best I could and we did a bit of floor clearing and vacuuming to ease his mind. I admit I chuckled a bit inside about him calling a spider “violent.” I simply call them evil demons of the night, but to each his own. After the initial terror had worn off, I talked to him about why he called it a ‘violent spider.’ Apparently, I am going deaf. He didn’t say ‘violent’, he said “violin.” My bad. He and Ethan had watched a wonderfully education show about the deadliest critters on earth and lo and behold, Violin Spider was discovered. It only lives in Brazil, but smart little Ben explained how easy it would be for one to catch a ride on some fruit to America and end up in his bathroom.
The thing about being a mom that amazes me, besides the fact that all my kids are still alive and healthy, is how we seem to rise to the occasion. I tell my oldest daughter this all the time when she starts to worry about your impending motherhood. We really have no idea how tough we are until we are moms. And even then, we still amaze ourselves. I hate spiders with something close to a loathing passion. Scorpions are a titch worse than them, but…..I’m creeping myself out even talking about it. The point is, if it was just ME, I would scream and climb on a chair when said critter appeared. But if I was with Ben, I would smash it without a thought.
I think there is a sort of armor or ‘tough switch’ that is flipped when we become a mom. I’m not saying I haven’t yelled for one of my big boys to kill a bug for me, but when push comes to shove…don’t mess with my kids. You may lose a leg…..or eight…..cause I said so.
Photo credit: this the inside of a beehive house. Don’t ask me why….google is too much fun and too random. Enjoy.
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