This evening, as usual, Henry waited till bed time to start packing his school bag. As I patiently watched him pack, I would intermittently bark at him so he didn’t relax and think his time wasting was working.
I noticed there were bits of pencil shavings in his pencil case. I asked why as he knew we only sharpen in the bin. He explained that sometimes his friends would use his sharpener to sharpen their pencils inside the pencil case. Not a problem. I had him clean out the pencil case and then promptly seized it and it’s contents until further notice. I see a hundred lines of “I won’t let my friends trash my things” in the near future… Tomorrow after school.
Finally both boys were tucked nicely in bed. I sat by the baby monitor in my room and listened as Eddie screamed, shouted, pleaded and wailed “take me to my mummy!”
My poor baby. I sat on the edge of my seat debating whether to rescue my son that clearly needed me or if I should sit firm and not break the routine. 2 minutes later, Henry was in my room telling me to come get that child because he needed to sleep.
“So are you concerned about his trauma or just annoyed that he’s keeping you awake?” I asked sarcastically. Straight faced Henry replied, “I’m annoyed because he’s keeping me awake. He only wants you so he can use your phone to watch his program which will make it harder for him to sleep.” Henry seemed unmoved by how he had just stomped on my shortlived joy that Eddie finally wanted me.
I picked the remaining pieces of my heart off the ground, pushed past Henry and went to carry my baby. I put him on my lap and we chatted about his cars in his toy box. I knew where this was going and mama didn’t raise no fool…
I needed an adequate distraction from the absence of his toys so, I asked Henry to tell us all a bedtime story.
Henry: Can I read a bed time story?
Me: No, that would require turning on the light
Henry: What happened to my bedside light?
Me: You broke it
Henry: Can I have a new one?
Me: No.
Henry: (Defeated) OK
Me: Please start the story
Henry: Once upon a time there was a boy named Connor that was Eddie’s age…
Eddie: (Simoultaneously alarmed and angered) Don’t call me age!!! Mummy Henry is calling me age!!
As a full fisticuffs was about to ensue, the boys bedroom door swung open and there stood the silhouette of a bare chested, rugby sexy shouldered, tall chilled glass of caramel flavoured milk…
“What’s going on here?” he growled like a cross between Santa Claus and Oscar the Grouch. “Daddy!!!” they screamed in united glee as if I was just beans they’d been managing!
I carried myself off Eddie’s bed and dragged my tattered pride out of the room. I freely give them to their father, I have moved on with my life!!!
