Today I went to Ari’s pre-school, the place where I continually forget all the other mom’s names, which is funny because most of them are named “Sarah.”
So there we were. I barely got any sleep last night because I kept waking up every three hours. Ari was not in the best of moods either. He refused to sit for storytime, and when I put him in a chair he screamed “No storytime!” And ran off to play with some vehicles.
Every time I turned around he was doing one of the following things:
—Screaming at another child for taking “his” toy
—Grabbing a toy out of someone else’s hand
—Screaming for the sake of screaming (not necessarily directed at anyone in particular)
—Refusing to sit for any of the activities
This was all happening while I was trying to make casual conversation with other moms, and I kept saying unintentionally offensive things. I don’t think the other Sarahs liked me very much.
Anyway, the last straw was when the head of the pre-school was attempting to hand out temporary tattoos to all the kids at lunch time. Ari did not want to sit to receive his tattoo. He wanted to go play. I was attempting to keep him seated, and as he was handed his tattoo, he screamed:
“NO Tattoo!!!!” As loud as he possibly could and with that he knocked the remains of his and my lunch onto the rug.
I burst into tears. The head of the school told me to calmly explain to him that he couldn’t throw food. I replied:
“I’m not even a person right now.”
” I know.” She said rubbing my arm. “Nobody tells you how hard it is to be a mother, right?”
I nodded.
A couple of the other moms came over to comfort me
One said:
” I totally know what your going through. Don’t worry! You are doing a great job! Don’t be so hard on yourself!”
She also let me know that when she was pregnant with her second kid, she had a calendar that she would cross the days off until she gave birth.
That was my day. How was yours?