Mother’s Day Gone Wrong: It’s that time of year when the world acknowledges the sacrifices and contributions of mothers everywhere, as they should.
I am personally a fan of showing moms appreciation all throughout the year, but that is a topic for another day. Today I want to share a story with you about one of my first Mother’s Days.
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It was May, and my third official year as a mother. I had a rambunctious 3 year old son and a cheerful 14 month old daughter, and a very busy life. My husband and I had very little money and didn’t really celebrate holidays, so I was surprised to wake up and find a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a Mother’s Day card on our dining room table–his first acknowledgement of the holiday since we had started having children.
I proceeded to start the morning routine of getting the children ready for the day, but I was surprised that my son had not come downstairs yet. I left the 14 month old playing on the floor and went quickly upstairs to check on my son.
One thing you need to know about my son is that he does everything in his own time. He was born two weeks “late” and has taken his own sweet time to do everything since. At this point, although we had been “potty training” for over a year, he still wore a diaper at night.
As I turned the corner and entered his room, I stopped short. [WARNING: Graphic material is contained in the following paragraph.]
It took me a minute to take in the scene, but I soon realized that he had taken off his diaper and decided to use the contents as an art medium. Poop was spread on his sheets, his pajamas and the wall. I am still not sure how all of that came out of his body.
I choked down the rising panic (and a little something else that was coming up), and proceeded to carry him to the bathroom to start cleaning up the mess. The shock of finding that disaster caused me to completely forget about the “innocent” little 14 month old I had left downstairs. (Note to Self: Always confine small children before leaving the room.)
I suddenly remembered aforementioned child and rushed downstairs to find her standing on a chair, calmly pulling each and every petal from those flowers my husband had bought me.
I could have cried, but I just started laughing because the agent of destruction was the very reason I had received the flowers in the first place.
That pretty much sums up the life of a mom–moments of beauty interspersed with a lot of poop and laughter.
As you enjoy the day tomorrow, may you rejoice in the honor that has been bestowed upon you to serve these precious gifts from God and love them as no one else can. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it. π
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photo credit:Β Piotr Bizior
Too funny (or should I say pooh funny)! Happy Mother’s Day today & everyday!
I love it! Perfect. Thanks for sharing π
Thank you for that, I needed some encouragement today as I had a very similar Mother’s Day experience this morning with my same aged kids!
Oh no! Sorry Josie, but glad I could encourage you. π
I loved your story! One of my children pulled the same artistic use of a diaper while staying with a dear friend of mine. I was having a lovely weekend away at a conference with my husband and my friend had not had her first child yet. I’m glad to say that my friend went on to have five great kids of her own despite her first run in with an artistic diaper cleanup. Happy Mother’s Day π
Oh my! That would put a strain on the relationship–haha! Happy Mother’s Day to You too Rhonda!
I think poop stories are one of those universally funny things every Mom understands.
I had a similar experience when my twins were almost two. I was about 5 months pregnant at the time so my sweet little 3 year old helped me clean it up. I determined then that one day I would write a book one day and call it “The Poop Chronicles”. 10 years later we still laugh about it frequently. I’ve never written that book though!
The things that moms go through! π
Good story;-) Thanks for sharing. It made me smile:-) God bless your beautiful family and give you good health (you gotta have it with 4 kids)!
Thanks Svitlana!
Thank you for sharing this, Kimberley. Mother’s Day can be a difficult celebration around my house since my husband’s birthday is generally right around the same time and the one generally supercedes the other. I try not to take it personally especially since my husband is on the austism spectrum and any card or gift from him, I have to remind him to get the day before (no matter the occasion). I’ve learned to accept him for who he his and be grateful for his expressions of love and gratitude when they come off-the-cuff and not when a calendar prescribes.
Last year my daughter was in the emergency room the night before Mother’s Day. So there was no celebration as she recovered from an illness, just when I had hoped my 4-year-old would have an understanding of what was going on. Mother’s Day was another day of mothering.
Love that! π