I realised the other day that not writing a lot about motherhood right now feels like I’m not writing about me anymore.
I have left out writing about Baby J on purpose because writing about your kids is a whole thing that I don’t want to get into at the moment. There’s a lot of judgment to “mommy bloggers” and honestly, I don’t want to have to deal with it.
But being a mother is what I do full on, every day. It permeates my very being and I can’t write about me without writing about the kind of mother that I am. I have opened my mind to trying to write more about me this year so, I’ll begin with this.
Back in December I saw this link on twitter, an article titled:
Ways I Have Attempted to Con My Kids Into Putting Their F*cking Shoes On: A Non-Exhaustive List.
It was a couple of days before this happened:
The short translation of that is; I once left a supermarket twice, back to back, because Baby J took off her shoes while I was shopping.
One of the top rules of my book is: I follow up. I never say something I’m not going to do. If I say I’m going to take a toy if she doesn’t stop playing in a manner that might be harmful, I explain up to three times -depending on the complexity of the situation- and then take the toy. No amount of screaming, crying, begging or whining will make me give that toy back.
I have done that since forever so she knows when I say I’m gonna do something, I do it. Period. I clearly made a mistake when I was shopping groceries (much needed groceries) and she started taking her shoes off.
I was desperate and used the wrong approach – I started threatening her because I thought it would be faster. MISTAKE. Very soon the words “if you don’t keep your shoes on I’m gonna go and we are not going to get any groceries” where escaping my lips and then, because I’m Sergeant Follow Up, I had to you know, follow up.
I left everything back in it’s place, got to the car and went back home. Except, she said she now understood and to please put on her shoes, that she will keep them on.
And it was probably because I was so hungry, I though everything would go splendidly. I went back into the store, got everything but one article and then an old lady came up to me and handed me Baby J’s shoes.
And I had to go back home, again.
I ended up going to the supermarket late at night while my mom baby sat. Because that’s the kind of mom that I am.