Parenting Skillz!

After 15 years, for the most part, of being a parent I think I've finally come to terms with the fact that I have an extreme lack of enthusiasm for playing board games. Or playing with Legos or dinky cars on the floor. All these years of parenting have not turned me into a morning person either.  For some reason a decade and a half later I still find I lack the ability to leap cheerfully out of my warm bed when I hear Roan wandering around foraging in the kitchen at 6 a.m.  Yup, six in the morning, not at night.  Ugh.   

I know I still fail miserably at making my kids pick up their stuff with any sort of consistency. I haven't been able to instill in either of my boys the value of a tidy bedroom. I don't overly enjoy housework (though I try to act like it in hopes that I'll subconsciously convince myself otherwise) and nagging someone else to do it is even worse! I've found I have to spend actual energy remembering to nag, and then on the nagging proper, repeatedly, and the shit is still on the floor.   I feel like that is just a lot of work in the end. 

And then there's school. I'll say it: I hate homework. I hated homework 30 years ago and I still hate it now. I wither with despair and dollar signs immediately float before my eyes every time the large white fundraiser-of-the month envelope shows up in the backpack. They always manage to bring that shit home, but leave the important stuff in their lockers.  I still haven't joined the PTA and I don't volunteer in the classroom. And I freakin' loathe packing lunches. I pay $100/month for Gage to buy his lunch every day just so I don't have to slap two pieces of bread together with mayo and sliced cheese.  If I could do the same for Roan, I'd be $200 dollars poorer each month. 

So there you have it, I am not an Über-Mom so much as a Good Enough to Keep the Authorities Away Mom.  So while I'm quite aware that these shortcomings probably drive my lovely boyfriend crazy (non parents are SO judgemental, yeesh!), my kids ADORE me. 

I'll take that consolation prize any day.