A couple of weeks ago I shared a post called Adulting 201. It focused on my attempts to train Will and Hallie in the ways of the world so that when they move out of my house in a decade or two, they won't need an Adulting School to teach them how to survive on their own. Positive responses - comments and even compliments - came rolling in, and I felt downright giddy about my parenting skills.
But as is always the case when it comes to parenting - and life in general, for that matter - that state of euphoria lasted only a few hours.
Will decided he would make himself breakfast, and while he did well cooking his eggs, when he finished eating he left the kitchen and abandoned the dirty pan on the stove. I called him back and asked him to take care of his mess, as cooking, after all, is more than just getting the meal to the table. Will looked at the pan, looked at me, and then said - yes, he actually said this - "what am I supposed to do with it?"
I hid my exasperation as I reminded Will that he needed to wash the pan and showed him (for the umpteenth time) where we keep all of the materials needed to accomplish this task. I left the kitchen and returned a few minutes later to find the lightly-scrubbed-but-still-dirty pan sitting in the dish drainer. I called Will back to the sink for a second time, pointing out that the pan needed a little additional elbow grease. He then lost his temper, animatedly exclaiming that the pan wasn't cleanable and angrily accusing me of being completely unreasonable in my request for him to continue working on it. We went back and forth two or three times, at which I also lost my temper and sent Will to his room so we could both cool off.
Clearly there is still work to be done.
In other real life news, below is a picture of me talking Hallie down off a ledge during her own birthday party. "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" doesn't even begin to describe that day; birthday party or not, my girl was not having her best day and she wasn't afraid to let her grumpy flag fly.
As any regular follower of my blogs knows, I love capturing the downs along with the ups. Real life is melting down at your own birthday party. Real life is confidently frying eggs but falling apart when asked to wash the pan. Real life is happy and sad, uplifting and aggravating, messy and dramatic. Real life is two steps forward, one step back.
A friend saw this picture and apologized, "I'm so sorry you had to deal with this during Hallie's party!" I saw this picture and exclaimed, "Thank you so much for capturing this moment!"
Welcome to real life. It sucks. You're gonna love it.
10 points to the first person to identify where this slightly edited quote comes from... 😉
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