I had made it through all the bedrooms and the family room and I just had all the little piles of things that really have no place left to sort through when the kids brought Henry in from playing outside. He was screaming and his legs were stiff. Not a good sign. Upon inspection, I found burns all down his legs from his dirty diaper that should have been changed hours ago but apparently none of the kids watching him could smell it. I started to pour him some bath water when Zach came up stairs covering his eye and crying really hard. He's 12! He doesn't cry like that very often. I asked him what was wrong. He ignored me and cried louder. Henry was now in the tub also crying very loudly. Kate came in and tugged on my leg. I ignored her and shouted at Zach to tell me what was wrong and what in the heck was he doing with his eye. He told me that Justyn had poked it with his finger and that he couldn't see and it felt like it was bleeding. I pulled his hand away, no blood. I yelled for Justyn to come here immediately and told Zach to go lay down. Kate was still tugging on my leg. I told her to stop. Henry was throwing stuff everywhere in the bathroom and throwing a really loud fit. Zach was still crying really hard. Justyn came running. I yelled at him and asked him why he poked Zach in the eye. He said it was an accident and he was so sorry and that he would go to bed now. I was still yelling and told him to stop thinking about himself and to worry about Zach's eye. Then Justyn started to cry and I told him to stop crying and help me out by finishing Henry's bath while I checked out Zach's eye. Oh, and I added, still yelling, "what was he thinking and that he really needed to learn to control his temper." Ha! I obviously practice the "do what I say and not what I do" type of parenting. I stopped yelling for a moment and took a deep breath only to realize that Kate was still tugging on my leg. "Kate! What do you need?" "I need to tell you something. Listen to me!" she demanded. Another deep breath,"Okay, what?" "There is a lady downstairs that needs to talk to you. She is from my Primary class. Hurry! She's been waiting a long time."
If I didn't have time to breath before, now time stood still as I stood at the top of the stairs reviewing the last 5 minutes of total chaos. NICE! Nothing like having a really bad mommy moment and having someone, not family or even friend, there to witness it all. I thought, "How do I enter the room? What do I say? Where is the closest exit? And what happened to the rule of NOT opening the doors without Mom's permission?" I was dying!
I grabbed a handful of stuff, as much as I could carry. I might as well look really, really busy and hope that she is suddenly distracted by all the stuff in my arms and forgets that she had just heard me screaming my head off and saying really terrible things to my kids. I went downstairs.....and no one was there. I was hugely relieved and suddenly hoped that Kate had made it all up. No luck! Shaelynne said that, yes, Sister B had come over to talk to me and that Kate had let her in the house. She was in the house for a few minutes but then she quietly snuck out the door and said that it seemed like maybe I was a little busy and that she would just call me later.
GREAT! Not only did she witness it all but then she left before I could even defend myself.
Well, all I can say is "It's my house! Enter at your own risk!!!"
I think I'll go read a good parenting book now. Any suggestions? I have one called How To Behave So Your Children Will Too. Maybe I'll start with that one.
OH, P.S. The stinky smell was 2 old moldy, yucky lunch bags. One was Zach's and one was Justyn's. We have several lunch bags so these two were not missed. They couldn't even remember when they had packed these lunches. Justyn was happy though because he did find his lost, forgotten popcorn ball. And then just to prove how gross he really is, he ate it. Funny how my dinner's are too gross to eat but an ancient popcorn ball isn't.
