Today I am like Scrooge. I have ghosts haunting me. One ghost of the past, and one ghost of things yet to come. Luckily, no ghosts of the present are after me- we’re having a pretty good day so far. . . .
First, let me tell you about the ghost of the past. Over Labor Day weekend my kiddos were allowed to sleep out in Grandma and Grandpa’s tent trailer for the first time. They did fine the first night, but of course, being my girls, they got a little squirrelly the second night. We had set up a baby monitor to listen in on them (since Miss 2 was out there with them) and we could hear tons of thumps and bumps and giggling. Pretty soon Miss 6 came out to find me.
“Mom, it fell down. . . . it broke. . . . all by itself.”
Being the super intelligent mom that I am, I tried to determine what was broken, and then I pointed out that a bar from the ceiling of the tent trailer probably didn’t fall down and get broken “all by itself.” Miss 6 looked at me and then yelled out, “Miss 8 told me to lie to you!!” Grandma and Grandpa burst into hysterical laughter when they heard this. I was laughing, too.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha…… oh wait. I’m the one who has to deal with this.
What on earth should I do?
I went out to the trailer and fixed the bar that Miss 8 had been swinging on. I pointed out to her that willfully getting out of bed and swinging from the ceiling was not an “accident.” Then I had a little chat with her about honesty. I think this ghost keeps haunting me because I was probably more serious about the whole thing then I needed to be. In fact, I know I was.
Fast forward to last night. Our sticker chart for keeping the girls in bed has been working really well. Until last night. Last night Miss 4 got out of bed and kicked Miss 6 in the face. So she is not getting a sticker. Which means on Friday, she will not be getting a fabulous afterschool treat. Which means Friday is going to stink. This ghost of the future is haunting me for obvious reasons.
Who knew that motherhood would be full of ghosts? Who knew I would be woken up at night with ghosts of the past haunting me and ghosts of the future worrying at me? Who knew I would go around feeling like an old man named Scrooge? Bah! HumBug!!
