'bad' Mommy

I had one of 'those' moments tonight.  The kind when in my head I am telling myself "shut up before you say something you might regret" but my mouth has a mind of it's own. 

Early this morning I had placed a picture on my 4 year old son's bed.  I was moving it from one wall to another, but the phone rang, life got busy, and I forgot about it.  Later in the evening, after an incredibly demanding and stressful afternoon (pre-school drop off, homework, preschool pick up, an hour of rowdy boy scouts, fast dinner, football practice, homework, piano practicing - and particularly whiny kids at every turn) I was on my last thread of patience and supposed sanity.  

So when my son called from upstairs that he was 'sorry but he broke the glass in my picture', I kind of snapped.  

I ran up the stairs, ignoring my awareness that the incident was entirely my fault, and got mad at my innocent little boy for breaking the glass in the picture.

Thankfully, tonight, his wisdom was greater than my own.  He looked at me in my frantic 'mom -has-just-snapped' mode and said without batting an eye.

"Maybe you should have put that picture in a place where I couldn't touch it.  Then it would have been just fine."

To which I replied.....well....I had no reply.  He was right.  And we both knew it.

I am grateful tonight for 'Z'.  He has taught me a lesson - which hopefully I will readily recall the next time I am in a maniacal state.  So here is to my renewed efforts to keep my mouth from spewing out emotion that has more to do with my own stresses than anything else that may be happening at the time.