I try not to worry too much about what my kids might be missing having a mom who works all the time.  Riley has been itching to skip daycamp this summer and has been harassing me to come to work.  I finally – against my better judgment said yes today.  As we dropped the other 3 off at daycamp, there was a lot of confusion about what he was doing.  His immediate thought was to lie – and say I was bringhing him to get a “SHOT”.  I quickly squelched the lie and said that he was going to come to work with me for a while and that I would try and find a day this summer for each of them too…<sigh>

And he actually was amazing!  I spent most of the day on the computer completing projects as well as an hour long (boring according to him ) teleconference.  He was polite to all of the people I work with and alternated between playing on my computer or his dsi.  He invited a friend of mine to lunch with us and then entertained both of us the whole time with entertaining stories of daycare and baseball.

Okay…all good things come to an end and as he was searching on my computer, he found – yet another case for his ipod touch – that  he wanted me to buy.  I think I have bought 4-5 and they all end up on the floor under the couch and unused.  And this one was $20 and he begged for me to buy it for him. 

I was able to temporize for a while on the way home and we stopped off at Seven 11 for slurpies for all of the kids and he again started pushing for me to buy it – cuz if I order it by 7 pm it can be delivered by tomorrow!!  He got more and more persistant over the 1/2 hour it took to get home.  And then he escalated!  He started yelling at his brother and sisters and calling them names.  Finally he asked for everyone to be quiet the rest of the way and he calmed down.

Only to escalate himself further when we got home.  And then he transferred the name calling to me.  I tried to talk calmly to him but he burst out of the house – as he was leaving yelling that I was the WORST doctor in the world and (gasp) LAME! 

And then a miracle happened.  Matthew was playing leggo’s in the living room and he got right in his face and said to me…”don’t listen to him mom…Riley she is the best mom and a great doctor!”  “He’s just got mental problems or something” – All of which pushed Riley over the limit and he ran out the door. 

And then Riley sent me a text saying he was sorry and could I give him some chores to do to earn the money.  So, I picked the foulest job – cleaning their bathroom! — and texted back.  He said no.  He would clean the garage.  I said fine, the garage and make sure all of the recycling is out for tomorrow (we have about 2 months worth).  He spent about about 5 minutes in the 109 heat index garage and came in and said he would do the recycling and his bathroom. 

He just came up and apologized again after finishing them but …geez…I don’t need this!  It’s funny, it seems that each time I do this special one-on-one time with him, he can’t re-connect smoothly with our life as part of a much larger family.  He always seems to have these sort of melt downs as we are getting back to the 5 of us.  It makes me hesitate to have them with him. 

But I just plug away. 

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags: drama, family