Daily life » Hip to be Mom

I’ve done it again. Made another boo-boo. I dropped Raine off at her early morning class and took the wrong way home. Don’t ask me how I can get lost on a route that I’m on every single day of the week. Don’t even ask !

But yeah, it happens. I’m not sure if it’s ever happened to you, but if it has, I’d love to hear about it. It would make me feel a whole lot better .

Point is, if I didn’t do silly things like this, where would I even find the occasion to laugh at myself, right? Laughing at other people when bad things happen to them is unacceptable. But laughing at yourself, now that’s different and it’s good for your psyche even.

But I digress. Back to how I turned up a blind ramp onto the highway and there was this oil truck doing some stunts and everyone was swerving to avoid it. With all this confusion going on, I somehow ended up on the wrong lane.

Fine, I was a little distracted and it was only when I made the turn that I noticed the scenery wasn’t quite familiar. Apparently I wasn’t alone though. Seems like the car in front of me made the same boo-boo! What a laugh!

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, I’ve been, um, under the hood, so to speak. A couple of my blogs broke while I was moving them around so I had to dive in. A return to my geeky past. I manage everything myself so when something, anything breaks, I’m the one to fix it.

If time had permitted, I would’ve used the opportunity to get my girls to get their hands dirty. A little ~~grease~~ geek never hurt, especially if you’re a girl. Well, maybe next time. It’s been a while since I’ve had to get geeky myself. I’ve missed rolling up my sleeves and getting elbow-deep in code, DNS and IPs. It’s hard to describe but how about this?

I was pretty much stuck in this chair all of yesterday. You may have swung by recently and noticed a bit of a mess here. Maybe we were missing a sidebar here, some graphics there. Pretty much the sort of stuff you expect when you’re moving to a new “home”. Been working very long hours with the most patient support guy ever (thanks again, Scott!) to get stuff ironed out.

Apart from that, we’ve just been hanging out. Food is the really big thing this time of year. For us, not so much. We haven’t been out to a restaurant yet. Instead we’ve been feasting on these incredibly scrumptious leftover turkey sandwiches. Never mind that we ran out of tomatoes.

And we got to the gym yesterday which was near-empty. A gym where you can actually make out each piece of equipment instead of seeing a blur of movement – priceless! Great workout yesterday, so happy about that. And planning to hit it again early tomorrow morning .

Got a few more hiccups to sort out, then we’re out of here. Going to make the most of the rest of the holidays and just kick back before the insanity starts all over again Monday.

More and more, I’m observing that moms (not everyone, of course) seem to be leaving kids to their own devices these days and keeping mum when their kids behave badly. And why is that, I wonder?

Last weekend, we were seated at a table next to 2 moms and their 2 daughters aged about 5. We were trying to have lunch (key word trying). But with these 2 little girls singing and shrieking on top of their voices, at a super-shrill super-high pitch, non. stop, it was impossible to have a meal without being driven up the wall.

We would’ve moved to another table further away but since it was lunchtime on a weekend, there was no escaping. All this time, the 2 moms are sitting there, eating and chatting, completely (repeat completely) oblivious to the ear-piercing shrieks and how everyone around them was grimacing.

Pretty soon, those 2 girls who incidentally were dressed like little tarts (hate to say this but are little girls becoming more sl*tty or what?), were yoyo-ing between other tables disturbing the diners (yes, they even climbed in and sat with the other diners) while their moms said and did absolutely nothing. at. all!

After the meal, the 2 very modern, dressed-up mothers got up, gathered their shopping bags and promptly started walking away. The little girls, noticing this, skipped and danced after them.

In another incident the same weekend, a balloon that a toddler of about 3 was holding had gotten away. We picked it up and were about to hand it back to him when his father came up, took the balloon off our hands and gave it back to the kid. No word of thanks. No eye contact. No acknowledgement. I would think this would’ve been the perfect opportunity to train his toddler to ‘thank you’, for instance (no brainer).

At these young ages, parents should be guided and taught simple manners and courtesies. In the case of the 2 girls, they’re old enough to be made to understand that it’s not okay to go around disturbing other people and acting loudly.

I think there’s a fine line between giving your kids the independence and freedom to grow and develop, and allowing them a free hand. And when they overstep that fine line, someone (and hopefully it’ll be their mom, not me!) has to put them in their place.

So why are we so afraid to reprimand our kids if we notice rudeness and other socially unacceptable behaviors? If the moms are not correcting them, who is going to do it? Should we really be surprised when our kids turn out into young adults who have no respect for others?

Having just had 3 Mondays in a row, I’m trying to look on the brighter side. It hasn’t been all doom and gloom. I’ve had these things to smile about:

Getting back my 8.5 hours of sleep – finally.
Receiving a surprise gift, a bar of chocolate, from one of my students whose country used to be part of Russia (I think? mind-blowing!).
Playing with my new toy. I’ll be getting to you, Siri.
A blunder I made in class that had everyone (including me) ROTFL. Trust me, it had nothing to do with the English language .
It’s hump day. I can’t almost touch the weekend – if I stretch my arms a little .

I want the holidays back!! It would be an understatement to say I wish we were carrying over our laid-back days from last year. Going by the first 3 days of my topsy-turvy taxi schedule, it’s going to be a REAL stretch in the coming weeks, and it’s only the 9th day of the year.

I’m usually indifferent to Mondays but this last Monday takes the cake. I barely got 3 hours of sleep on Sunday night. Must be the tea I drank at dinner time or something. For someone who needs 8-10 hours of sleep, 3 hours is almost no sleep at all. So clearly, it’s not going to work!

Nevertheless I had to be up at 6:00a Monday morning to have breakfast with the girls and drive Skye to school. I would’ve jumped straight back into bed if I hadn’t just washed my hair and had to wait for it to dry. And no, I do not own a hairdryer and I’m not one to dash out in my jammies without brushing my teeth either. Not me!

As we turned the corner to Skye’s school, Mrs BA aka Bad Attitude (lots of those around these parts!) turned right into my path as I was turning into the opposite lane. Clearly I wasn’t in a good mood so I gladly waved my middle digit. Not proud of it but she asked for it.

We usually try to eat lunch together which, on most days, means 3:00p when Skye gets home from school. That’s why you keep hearing me rant about the long school hours. If you ask me, 3:00p is tea time, not lunch time. And do longer school hours make smarter kids, I wonder?

The last taxi run of the day was at 7:30p with one stop for gas. Note to self: fill up on the weekend, why don’t you? Dinner was at 8:00p by which time our tummies were in knots because dinner is 2 hours later than usual. Shower at 8:30 and by 9:30p, we were ready to call it a day and hit the pillows!

The past 3 days have been Mondays for us. I wonder if it’s time to move to another planet.