Lessons on Becoming a Patient Parent

Most of us accept that when we become parents, we will have to be adults and adopt a more patient attitude, withhold from overt emotional storms whenever possible, and lead our children by our own examples.

Man that is hard when I am not having a great day.

Such as (and thanks to Joe Bob Briggs for the numbering system):

Numero uno: Someone let their dog run and poop on our lawn -- two of 'em, so maybe it was two dogs. We have a fence on 3 sides of our lawn. I hate picking up other peoples' messes. They waited until I'd left to take my daughter to school, help out there, and drop off paperwork for James before letting them loose on our lawn.

Numero two-o: At 11:30 AM it's already 96° in the shade & still big gusts of wind and some dumb guy in a big truck in front of me flips his lit cigarette out his window while speeding down the highway. Right near some fields of dry grass. I lost my home and entire neighbourhood to a wildfire about 16 years back and idiotic, selfish acts like this still make me see red.

Numero three-o: The outdoor cat, whom we've unofficially adopted, brought us another present of a dead rat. Normally, this would be pretty good news, except that my 5 y-o daughter saw her in the process of killing the rat, had a zillion questions and wanted to stay for the whole show. And guess who's been getting the thrilling job of double-bagging those bad boys? In the middle of a big heat wave and thanks, but garbage pickup was so yesterday already? Hint: Moms get all the bestest assignments!

Numero four-o: It's now over 100° and the wind is blowing. I saw big smoke clouds from three different fires in less than 2 hours this morning and a spotter plane & Borade bomber just took off over our house. The hairs on the back of my neck are up and I want to just hit something.

I had trouble going ahead with volunteering in classrooms as planned and held my support phone calls until after the kids were down and out for their naps. I only mentioned the heat when James' SHAPE assistant showed up to work with him this afternoon.

I know there are others out there with more things to deal with, but today has just pushed all my buttons. So I try and breathe. I think I need to be the calm adult so I don't scare my kids and make them neurotic. I sneak off to the bathroom and freak out occasionally. I've made my support calls. And I watch the skies and news reports.