Well, almost anything. That’s our job as mothers isn’t it?
To be prepared for the worst and pleasantly surprised when it doesn’t happen.
To put in years of back- and heart-breaking work, in an attempt to mould a living being into a new, improved model.
That’s what I keep telling myself when I have days like yesterday.
Wren’s school had their annual Walkathon scheduled, and it kind of snuck up on me a bit. It was the night before and it was casually mentioned at the dinner table.
“Tomorrow? Really? Oh.” Furious (but foggy) thinking on my part. After all, it was pretty late… About 6.30pm.
WonderHubby caught my eye across the table & mouthed these words, for which I am planning to make him pay:
“Keep her home, she’s still got that cough.” Accompanied by mimed coughing performance.
I nodded. My first mistake.
The next morning on his way out the door to a day of blissfully coffee breaks and managing inventory, WonderHubby made his second wonderful, and yet somehow demented, suggestion.
“You should get her to do her homework & get it out of the way.”
Stupid nodded again. My second, and most fatal mistake.
I’m sure you’ll understand when I tell you that Wren had a radically different picture of how she was going to spend the day. Polly Pocket, Littlest Pet Shop animals and Nintendo DS games featured heavily, as did the television programs that she usually misses out on because of being at school.
I was generous. Or just apprehensive. I gave her until 10.30 before I mentioned it and got the expected knee-jerk reaction: “Nooooooooo!“. So of course I had to stick to my guns and make her sit down to it then and there. If I hesitated, showed any weakness, she would cut me off at the knees and feed me to the guinea pigs.
It was quite a while before all of her homework was done and I was able to collapse gratefully onto the lounge.
Have a guess how long the performance went on for. I dare you…
and this is why I could never homeschool. It’s like pulling teeth around here trying to get the teenager to even do his homework at all, let alone having him home all day.
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