Hide and Seek

This is the card I got for Mother's Day. From two people!! The two people, in fact, that know me the best in the world. Yup, both my mom and Elizabeth picked it for me, so I'm kind of wondering what it says about my mothering style. Obviously, it celebrates my love of the ironic 50's housewife. I love that stuff as you can tell from my kitchen wall.......

And my refrigerator........ (If you want to actually see the stuff that's on there, just click the picture and it should open full size)

So they definitely hit the nail on the head when it came to my style. But then I start wondering, what does personal style have to say about mothering style? Am I a tired housewife that loves cocktails? Absolutely. Do I sometimes long for a moment's break from the children? Uhhhh, yeah........ Have I fallen into the lows of the mom on another card (once again given to me by Elizabeth) who's telling her preschool age daughter "Monica, darling, mix Mommy another drink".....? Not yet....

But I definitely admit that I have a worn-down-to-the-point-that-I-can't-fight-them-anymore-but-I'm-calling-it-laidback parenting style. I definitely live by the motto "pick your battles." So when it looks like I just don't care, I'm just harnessing my yelling and punishing for the times that they do seriously bad stuff. Because they do a lot of bad stuff. Really. A lot. And I fought them every time, well, I think DFCS might have to step in.

I try to get them on the major points. Don't beat people up (I'd prefer you not beat your brothers up, either, but let's work on keeping our violence contained to the house.) Say please and thank-you, and yes ma'am and yes sir (So that even people that think you're hellions will say, "Well, their poor mother's trying. At least they say please.) And finally, the one we're working on the most- Act decent and half-way human when we're out in public. (For God's sake, I don't really care how you act at home, but don't embarrass us in public. This is a small town and your grandparents live here!)

And after fighting the big fights, I don't have the energy for the little ones. So if they pull the books off the shelves, climb on the table, sneak into the refrigerator and eat an entire pack of sweet peppers (happened this afternoon), I tend to take a light approach. Pretty much anything that won't kill them or cause me great public shame and humiliation is tolerated- at least until it gets too obnoxious or out of hand. And I'm fairly tough to shame and humiliate, so that really sets the bar low.

And even with such low standards, I still spend entire days fussing at them (I told you. Bad stuff. A lot.) So imagine what it would be like if I really ran a tight ship? I'd have to go that whole Captain Von Trapp whistle route. Scary.....

So basically, yeah, I fit into that whole days of yore parenting demographic that loved their kids, took care of their kids, but let them entertain themselves a good bit of the time. I don't think that's a bad thing. Kids need to entertain themselves. And I'm lazy. And there are only so many times in a day that I can read books, or play Little People, or blocks, or kitchen. Hide and seek is starting to sound better and better.......