One of THOSE moments

Ha, so my challenge is to live in the moment. But what about when you have one of THOSE moments? You know, one of those PARENTING moments.

My small boy has taken to shouting at me. And when I asked him yesterday why he doesn't shout at his teacher, his confident reply (like "Duh, Mom") was "because you get into more trouble at school than you do at home if you shout at your teacher." Take that, parenting guru, aka Mom, aka me! Ouch.

I'm wondering how to up the ante at home now. Should it just be the wooden spoon, or can I come up with some sufficiently evil mom device to ram his shouting down his throat? I'm searching for some inspiration here. Huff.

On the other hand, I have skillz! Picking the small girl up yesterday meant going through school aftercare, where there was a soccer game on. And when a ball rolled in our direction, I neatly kicked it through my small boy's legs back to a couple of drop-jawed, wide-eyed boys who looked at Luke and said "Your mom's got skillz!" Mental mom high five. And of course, a chance to rub it in whenever I can. A mom's got to do what a mom's got to do and take every gap she gets to show she has skillz.

I feel taken for granted this morning. Got up, made lunches, cut hair, ironed small girls new uniform (arghghghgh - two shirts, a skirt and 2 pairs of socks were R700!!! No wonder I dreamt about paying bills all night), had to find lunchboxes, tidy kitchen and still get yelled at by small boy because, due to missing lunch box he left in the car, he didn't have a lunch box! Somehow that was my fault.

Now my nearest and dearest never takes me for granted (I'm smiling at the beautiful flowers I got this weekend, and sighing over the kiss and cup of coffee that woke me this morning from the paying bill dreams). But my smaller nearests and dearests are seriously making me want to whack them in the moment. How DO I teach them manners? Sometimes it feels like the courtesy of my man is just not rubbing off. Witness small boy shoving past his sister instead of standing back to let her get up. Or pushing past her to get to the bathroom first. Oi vey. Gentleman?

OK: need a prayer for today. Um. Dear Lord, help me to have manners too? And oh, help me to stop yelling as a default please!

#BeingReal#BeingInTheMoment#JustMom#FindingMe