Holidays Are Not All Candy Canes and Sugar Plums
During this holiday season, mothers are posting social media photos, blog articles and anything else they can think of about their joyous holidays.
And why not? Everyone loves cute holiday story.
However, I'm not always one to tell just the positives of motherhood. Even if it's a holiday. So, I thought I might share with you some of the holiday blunders that found myself in. If you have experienced some of these too then you'll know you're not alone and if you haven't, well at least you'll get a chuckle.
Banana Blunder: Our two-year-old has recently found that he enjoys bananas better than any other food in the known world. He doesn't want candy, meat or snack cakes. He just wants 'Nanas'. This became a problem the other night when we ran out of bananas. He was irate. How dare I let him eat all the nanas and not be okay with going out into the freezing weather (as it stands in Ohio) to get him more! The nerve of me. I decided that the right thing to do was show everyone how upset he was at this banana blunder by dragging down the Christmas tree in our living room. Well, we got the message. Side note: He ended up having more nanas in the kitchen the following morning.
Elf Shenanigans: Yes, I fell into the viral trap that is Elf on a Shelf. I purchased the tiny doll online to give our children something cute and interesting to look forward to each morning. Well, I'm human and one day I forgot to move the Elf. Our six-year-old felt that this meant that the magic of Christmas was gone and decided that her older brothers were to blame. She had a meltdown that could be heard a mile out. Ugly crying to the point that her words didn't make sense. I explained that the Elf maybe just needed a day off, gave her a hug and headed to my office to work. Closer to the end of that day, I came up from work on a break to her giving her two older brothers a peptalk about how to act in order to keep the magic flowing in our home for the holidays. I remembered to move the Elf that evening and got to watch a six-year-old child gloat to her older brothers about how; "She knows about these things."
Present Reveal: For those who read me often, you probably have figured out by now that we have a toddler. An adorable, interesting, opinionated and monstrous toddler. We are in the terrible-twos and mine stage all at once. Now, to understand this issue, I must advise you that Derrek (the other half) and I, tend to set presents out under the tree as they are gathered and wrapped. (Aside from a select few from the big man!) With that said, this means that there are wrapped gifts under our tree in the living room from the end of November until the big day. In previous years, this has not been an issue. Lillian has been old enough to understand to wait, Leo has been too young to care, and the older boys know that if one gift gets touched by them... they're all going back to the store.
Leo, however, is now at the age where he understands what presents are. I'm sure you can get where I'm going. One day when we were cooking in the kitchen, Leo found the perfect opportunity to go digging through the gifts, and their wrapping paper. Thankfully, he only managed to fully open one gift by the time we found him, and it was one of his. However, the older kids were freaking out. They were fully sure that there would be no Christmas because a gift was opened early.
I'd like to say that we reassured them right away that Leo is too young to understand the rules.... but we didn't. We waited about an hour before explaining. At least now we know not to worry about them and gifts in the future. I'm hoping Leo understands too, although... I'm not holding my breath.
Horrendous House: I have realized that there is a huge amount of people on the internet that have immaculate homes during the holidays. Everything looks like a hallmark card and it's cleaner than a hospital. I wanted our house to be that way this year. Every mother reading this is laughing already....
"You've got four kids in your house, and you thought you could get your home together in less than a month...."
Yes, I did, and I got close. Apparently, my children felt that the Fung Shue of the house was off by being so organized and put together. They decided to help. I suppose their version of helping was just leaving everything they touched in the place they last left it. I had two more rooms to get together when I finished my shift last week. When I came upstairs to start on another room, I found the kitchen almost back to the way it was before I started. And the boy's room, and the living room and Lillians room. Destroyed. Then, when I asked them why they did not clean up after themselves, they looked at me like a deer in headlights. As I was huffing with frustration, my eight-year-old pops off with, "We were just trying to help you with the house." - Yes, I was as confused as you probably are right now.
I really enjoy the cute parts of the holidays with my little ones. The story times, movies, outings and family get togethers... they're all magical. However, that doesn't mean that the blunders don't happen.
It's not something people like to talk about because it doesn't sound magical or picturesque.
However, I think it makes the holidays more memorable. What about you?
š§” Shine Bright, Kayla
Attn: Due to the holiday season tomorrow, I will not be posting an article on12/25/2022. Happy holidays to you and yours from me and mine!