Mom-post: Operation Immovable Meltdown

I decided to start this blog as a personal practice. After I finished seminary, I wanted to continue to challenge myself to write on a regular basis. My goal is to write once a week, though I often come up short. When I started, I took an unofficial survey of what I should write about. Everyone who responded said I should write about being a mom.  So, naturally, I decided to write mostly about the life of the church and reaching their goals in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Well, today, for all those who wanted to hear about motherhood, this blog is for you!

Today , we had a 2-hour delay. You would think that with two extra hours, the morning would be more relaxed. You would think that. But you would be wrong. Two hour delays almost always mean we will be running late.

But not today. No sir. I woke up with a plan. I would get the kids dressed and fed, and THEN let them play for awhile.

I shared this plan with my five-year-old son. Clothes. Breakfast. Fun.  Now my son is not a giant fan of getting dressed. And he has been on this kick of matching his shirt to the theme in preschool. So, together we searched the drawer, the clean clothes stacked on his floor, and the clean clothes in the hamper in my room (Ok, so I am a little behind on getting the clothes put away, but I am just satisfied that they are clean.).  Nothing Australian. Nothing that starts with K. So I start getting creative.

“Look honey, this double decker bus is from the United Kingdom.”

“This shirt says ‘basketball’ which has a K right in the center!”

“If you wear this brown fleece, you will look like a kangaroo.”

He was having none of it. At this point he disappeared… I think to "check" on his sister. 

I knew what had to be done. 

If I was going to survive, I needed coffee. I was dressed, so I could have breakfast, right? 

Well, after some coffee, I headed back up. This kid who had been content for a half hour (hey, it was a big cup) all the sudden meets me on the fourth step from the top, starving. The years of being a human fence, probably the one skill from showing hogs for ten years in my youth that has been the most helpful in parenthood, were now put to the test. But this kid is no amateur when it comes to effective methods to get-your-way-and-avoid-ever-getting-dressed-again. He commenced "Operation Immovable Meltdown."

So now I’m feeling good and guilty. The kid is hungry, after all. I, on the other hand, abandoned him to feed myself. Do I feed him? Or do I stick to my guns? If I don’t stick to my guns, I will have nothing to hold as collateral for getting dressed. So I stay. And threaten punishment if he can’t get to the top of the stairs by a count to 10. He makes it. Whew. He gets dressed, still tear-y, but not resisting as I help in the clothes. Don’t ask me what he wore, I have no idea.  

He also ate two bowls of cereal. And was out of the door 3 minutes early. So, as I drove them to school, I considered making a comment on Facebook about not enjoying 2-hour delays. But then I remembered how my daughter and I just had a conversation about how we are not morning people, and would totally be fine with school always starting at 10 am. So maybe it wasn’t the delay as much as just one of those days that we all have. At least I hope I’m not the only one.