The Weekend Report: Perfect Mother of the Year, do you know her?

Last Sunday night my family and I were gathered together enjoying the last few hours of the weekend. I started to get a pit in my stomach thinking of the coming week and the large abundance of activities looming on the calendar. My nerves started to frazzle at the edges. So much to do and only one mama to do it. Yikes. It was going to be a busy one and I have to admit to feeling a bit of dread at the prospects. Get a grip, I told myself. Pretend like you are The Mother of the Year or something. (Pass the Diet Coke).

I started going through some school papers that were on the kitchen counter and noticed MyLittleTwinBoys had an oral report, including a grand poster display due the very next day, which we had neglected atrociously.

Good glory! How could I have forgotten.

Holy cow! There are two of them!

Hot dang…they have two older sisters who just mentioned how bored they are! I scanned through the assignment requirements, called my girls over and asked them to help out. They were more than happy to assist, as you can most assuredly imagine.

I explained the assignment.

“Choose a topic that interests you, research it and make a poster stating four facts about it.” Easy enough, right. Not to bad, take a deep breath…no harm done, we can pump these babies out in no time. Maybe I can still pretend to be the Mother of the Year….mother of the year…the yeaaaaaaarrrrrr…..

One of my boys chose to report on the White Anemone living on the ocean floor and the other chose to report on Diamonds and how they are made. With the help of my teenage girls those posters came to life in no time flat.  The next morning my boys brushed their teeth, I combed their hair and dropped them off at school with two lovely posters in tow. Great! The week is off to a good start after all. I bet I might get my Mother of the Year award in the mail this afternoon!

Later that day when I was tidying up  the kitchen, I found the report requirement sitting on the top of a stack of paper. I tossed it in the trash, revealing the back of the paper. It was loaded with example questions for the SCIENCE EXPERIMENT that was required.

Good glory! We did the wrong report!

Holy cow! We did the wrong report times two.

Maybe my boys  wouldn’t notice. They are only 7 you know. Maybe the teacher would just smile and say in her loving first grade voice “What lovely posters boys, now take your seat.” Even if she was really thinking, wow that mom of yours must not be able to read. How sad.

After school when my boys piled into the car they were full of stories to tell.

“Guess what, Mom. Nate and I were the ONLY kids in our class who did our reports RIGHT. Everyone else did these weird..like science experiments that were super cool and interesting and stuff but they didn’t even stick to the assignment. We must be the smartest in the class, right mom. Since we are the only ones who did the actual assignment. Man, we are super cool. You don’t even know how cool we are, Mom.”

The shame! Oh, man. The darn shame of it all. I took a deep breath and the ugly confession slithered right out of my mouth.

“Actually, I am really sorry to tell you this boys…but I didn’t read the assignment very closely and you were actually supposed to do a science  experiment. We did the report wrong. I am super sorry guys. My bad. Super. Sorry.”

It was quiet in the back seat.

Then I heard a few sniffles.

And then a water fall of emotion sprang out loud and clear. Big crocodile tears and heaving sobs erupted in grand abundance. They cried the entire 20 minute drive to our impending violin lesson. That is so embarrassing, Mom! We thought we were the smartest! Everyone must think we are so stupid!!!!

And what could I say to that. I felt stupid, baby. I could see the Mother of the Year certificate going down in flames. And do you know what  I thought at that very moment…it’s way too much pressure to try to be the Perfect Mother of the Year.

I ain’t perfect.

Clearly.

I get frazzled. I make mistakes.

I wish I could be a perfect mother. Who doesn’t! But I’m pretty sure the Perfect Mother of the Year doesn’t exist.

She certainly doesn’t live at my house.

And it’s ok.  Ain’t no body perfect, sister. 🙂

I suppose I would be better served to remember that, rather than wallowing  in my own shortcomings.

 

I think I will wallow in a few of these kisses instead. Turns out, these boys of mine were pretty quick to forgive.

Happy, happy Mother’s Day to all of you wonderful women out there.  I hope you have a great (guilt free!) day. You deserve it!

You can read past Mother’s Day posts here, here and here. See you next week. More recipes lay it wait…