If you want something done right
My husband works all kinds of hours. Most nights, I am alone with the kids from 5pm to 3am. So I get to do bedtime alone, A LOT. Which isn’t fun. Tonight, I thought I’d gotten off lucky, because my husband was home at 8. I needed to run to the store to pick up a few essentials, and I didn’t want to wait until the kids fell asleep, because I was already tired from chasing them around the park all afternoon. I’d most likely be back before the kiddos went to sleep anyway.
Well, not tonight. For some reason, the kids actually fell asleep before 9! (A VERY rare occurrence in my house, unfortunately.) My son is sleeping peacefully, still in his regular clothes. No biggie there. But, of course, when I asked my husband if he’d brushed his teeth, the answer was, “He’s asleep?!”
My daughter is 16 months, and has a sippy cup of milk before bath and brushing teeth and bed. Well, she’s asleep, too. I can forgive the no bath, but her teeth aren’t brushed either. And she didn’t have her sippy cup. So, guess who’s going to have to deal with the cranky, hungry baby in the middle of the night? Me, of course.
This is why I feel trapped by motherhood. Because I can’t leave for an hour or two and expect what needs to be done to get done. I can’t go out, without the kids, to run errands in the afternoon and expect the kids to have been fed lunch (even though my husband doesn’t forget to make himSELF something to eat.), or given a nap. Instead, I come home to insanely cranky, hungry kids. Yet, if I TELL my husband what needs to be done, I’m nagging.
Don’t get me wrong. My husband is a great guy. He’s good with the kids… as long as I’m around to remind him they need to be fed, have their teeth brushed, and that if he’s going to be taking our daughter in public, he should probably try brushing her hair.
*sigh*
P.S. Maybe you think I’m being extreme because ONE night, my kids’ teeth haven’t been brushed. But I have HORRIBLE teeth, just like my dad (who had ALL his teeth pulled at the age of 18). So, yes. I am extremely diligent in trying to preserve my kiddos chompers, even if they are only baby teeth.
I know exactly how you feel…believe me, you are not alone.