Tonight, my ten-minutes-of-torture (aka, the mom rant) was ever-so-rudely interupted by a...DUCK. Yes, you read that correctly: a duck interrupted my exciting and prolific speech to my children about doing more cleaning and being less silly.
It had been a long day and an even longer night. My husband was working late and by the time eating dinner, cleaning up, taking baths, making more messes, doing more clean-up, brushing teeth, dressing in pajamas, packing school lunches and, once again, making MORE messes was completed, I was a combustible mix of over-tired and under-appreciated. Look out kids, Momma’s gonna BLOW!!
Instead of losing it like I was daydreaming about and securing a future bill at the therapist office for my children, I took a deep breath, sat my boys down (since they are the only ones that have a long enough attention span to listen to my ten-minutes-of-torture) and climbed up on my “whoa-is-me and you-need-to-listen-and-help-more soap-box".
As it were, my six-year-old had been wearing a duck mask (that's life with kids: random and weird) and since he had asked very politely if he could continue to wear it during my rant, I consented.
So there I was, talking...and talking...and talking...in fact: thinking back, I have no idea what I was even saying and I’m sure 99.9% of it was not retained by my boys either! Especially since I noticed my four-year-old’s eyes were more glazed over than the doughnuts we had eaten for breakfast that morning.
It was somewhere in my speech between a point I was making that was absolutely boring and absolutely pointless, I busted out laughing. It just hit me: I am giving a speech to a four-year-old that is so bored he is semi-comatose and a ...DUCK! My laughter knocked both my children out of their stupors and they started laughing too. They never waste time when there is an excuse to give out hugs so I was mauled by tiny arms hugging my legs and waist as they shared that sweet moment of laughter with me. Of course, they had no idea why we were laughing, but it was a welcome relief from my rant I’m sure!
I crouched down to be eye-level with my little men and said, “Hey guys--I’m sorry I was kinda crabby (okay, that’s THE understatement of the year!) with you today. We all do need to laugh more, don’t we?!”
My four-year-old, Judah, grinned and nodded, “And does this mean you’re sorry too that you put me in time-out earlier?”
“No, you stinker! I really meant that one.” I had a fresh wave of laughter over that one though, figures he would think he’s pretty much perfect!!
I gave my Judah and my little duck another hug and watched them run off to bed, thinking how I felt like a new person after that wonderful fit of laughter we just shared. And thinking how I sometimes take myself...and our little world...WAY too seriously. I want to strive to live a life interrupted. Interrupted by laughter, messes, little kisses and of course, ducks.
