One of Those Days.

Sometimes, as a parent, you just have one of those days. 
In mid-May, Maia was going through some AWFUL daycare drop offs. Wailing and crying and clinging to me for dear life, begging me not to go to work, begging me to bring her with me. These days were a tremendous pull on my heartstrings, and while I knew she was safe and well cared for, it hurts as a mother to see your child, and worse, to leave your child in distress!  Oh, heartache!  Bedtimes hadn't been much better, and she was skipping naps during the day. It was a recipe for disaster.


So we started a sticker chart. Good drop offs, naps at school, staying in her room after being put to bed all resulted in a sticker. After 5 stickers, she got a little Princess. Hooray! It was working! She was motivated to gain some control over her behavior.

In the middle of this, Ray left for a visit to New York. A week of single parenting for me, but it's okay! I've got this. On the first day, we had a great drop off, due in part to the promise that I would see her at lunch time for the Family Picnic.

Families gathered at the pavilion by the duck pond on the grounds near daycare. Kids from toddler to pre-K were sitting next to their parents and grandparents on picnic benches and getting lunch buffet style. Most kids are 1 kid to 2 adults, or at the very least, 1:1 or 2:2. I'm a little unusual in that I have 2 kids to one adult, but that's okay - we're having a good day! Parker and Maia were SO excited to see me there for lunch!  We waited... and waited... and waited our turn to go get our lunch. Pasta salad with chicken and grapes (neither of them liked it) Sun Chips (kids loved them), Watermelon and brownies (mess fest!). Maia made sure to keep everyone supplied with lemonade, and we sat together on the picnic table and ate our lunch.  I was busy, trying to keep both kids on task in this exciting and busy environment. I turned to help Maia and Parker slipped off the picnic bench and bonked his head.  In so doing, he tried to catch himself and upended his lunch. Watermelon and pasta flying through the air and landing... on me. In my hair, on my face, in my eye, on my clothes (why, oh why did I wear light colors today?).  


Staff come running with a make shift ice pack, and another mom was dear enough to bring Parker more food (that he wasn't going to eat anyway).  Parker settled, and I gave up on getting the kids to eat the food they didn't like. Pick your battles. Save your sanity.


After lunch, there was some milling about. Parker was going through a new phase of thinking that if you try to catch him when he goes too close to danger, it's a game. So he runs faster, while looking over his shoulder and giggling.  For our next event, Parker tried to run too close to the duck pond, while Maia snuck heaping handfuls of Sun Chips without permission. Then Maia began ramping up her hysterics for my departure. While she's on my hip, Parker runs out into the parking lot, just after a car passes by. I yell at Maia to get off! and throw her and my purse to the ground to pursue (the giggling maniacally) Parker. Once I've caught him,  my stern admonishments of "No run in parking lot! Danger!" are responded to by my little stinker saying "I funny?!"  We return to the sobbing Maia, who is being wrangled by the center's director who is telling her "I need a big preschooler to help me take all the table cloths off the table, can you help me?"  To no avail. I leave a kicking, screaming, sobbing Maia in the arms of her very pregnant teacher (sigh), and head back to my car, miserable. And as I walk up the sidewalk, Parker is walking hand-in-hand with his classmates, and he is sobbing for me too. Wow.  I shake my head, and comment to his teacher: This was an Epic Triple Mommy Fail today. She advises me to go get a little liquid lunch before returning to work. I didn't. But I cried on the way (and I'm not much of a crier) back. It took me a good 15 minutes to compose myself before I could go back to work. Sometimes being a mom hurts. A lot. 


Addendum:  At pick up time in the afternoon, I'm told that mine were not the only kids who had a complete meltdown when it was time for parents to leave... and that naps were really really needed.  That said, they did all feel really bad for me. And I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.