Parenting by Kristin

Guilt is such a powerful tool as a parent. 10 minutes ago I lost it and I mean COMPLETELY LOST IT. I actually resigned as a mother with my parting words before I shut my bedroom door being "And when you all grow up to be complete losers it won't be my fault." Now I feel it necessary to give a little background here, It is currently 5:45 on Thursday afternoon. My children have been home from school for more than 3 hours, more than enough time to complete the simple tasks of homework and instrument practice, YOU'D THINK!!! But not my children NOOOOO! Examples of how effectively they killed time this afternoon to follow in bullet points because they look so official and I like them, who cares if this is not the appropriate time for them.

• Brett stayed after school and did get his homework done so that is one positive but when it came to piano practicing he sat a the piano, played though his recital piece for like 3 minutes and then proceeded to sound out the theme to "The Office" now while that is awesome that he has the talent and ability to play by ear so easily it gets us no closer to polishing a song that needs to be performance ready in 16 days.

•Samantha rather than do her homework during the week a little each day decided to leave it all to Thursday night to complete, and rather than actually work on her homework she has squandered the entire afternoon on eating me out of house and home, leaving bits and pieces of her clothing strewn about the house and sitting at her desk "pretending" that she was doing her homework. Now here we are tears, a few slammed doors, LOTS of yelling (by her I may add not me) and coming quite close to blood and she is still not working on it.

• Colby sat in his room at his table with his homework out and actually built some pretty impressive lego creations, oh and managed to smash pizza into my carpet in between building projects.

So that brings you up to speed as to my reason for resigning as a mother, I am so tired of nagging my kids to do the things they must EVERYDAY, seriously you'd think Brett would not be surprised when I ask him to brush he teeth...HE'S 12 years old for heavens sake, this is not a NEW thing!! After having all I could take I told my children I quit...they could never brush their teeth again, never to their homework, eat whatever and where ever they wanted and that when they grow up to be complete losers it won't be my fault. Now 10 minutes later, Piano is being practiced, homework is being worked on and rooms are being cleaned with out asking. I love guilt, well except when it comes after telling my kids that they will grow up to be losers without me!

On a side note Yesterday was the first day a Christmas and somebody brought to us a Partridge in a pear tree! How cute is this and it totally brightened our day! Now I just need to get my Christmas decorations up so he doesn't look so out of place in this bahumbug looking house!