It’s quite possible that I’m failing as their Mom!
I screwed up Halloween and seriously… how bad do you have to be to screw up Halloween!
Year after year we pick our own pumpkins, load up with treats, decorate the house on the first of the month, and creepily set the Dining Room table for some fabulous Fall family meals.
Remember this….
That’s what October has looked like for as long as I can remember. Before I dropped the pumpkin. Until today…with not a treat in the house…not a single decoration and nary a gourd to be found!
Between school work and riding and hockey and life…all the extras worthy of Pinterest Boards that I USED to manage have all disappeared and I’m left with a feeling of complete failure.
At lunchtime today, before heading to school, we grabbed the treats needed for this evening along with a few token pumpkins, then sat for a chat about how I was feeling. We chatted about how nothing truly important was falling behind, how all theirs and my homework was always complete, that we were making every hockey game and practice plus managing to fit in our trips to the barn and our visits with family.
We agreed that the very most important things in our lives were still getting done despite how busy our lives are right now.
I headed to school a little bit saddened and feeling like amom-failure…but glad we’d had a moment to set the record straight.
Then this evening when I pulled in the driveway, feeling rushed in the knowledge that the kids would be waiting for me to get the night started, the first thing I noticed was the two CARVED pumpkins on the front door steps.
Then, as I stepped into our home, greeted by an excited dog wearing last year’s costume, I was overcome with emotion by the colourful orange lights creeping up the staircase, the decorated table filled with Halloween treats, and the beautiful smiles on my children’s faces.
They did it. They carved their own pumpkins, dragged out the decorations, costumed the dog and pulled it together! They made Halloween.
And it hit me…
I’m not…in any way whatsoever…failing as their Mom.
There is often an interesting shift once we mamas become single parents. If our kids are old enough to be aware…they manage to tune into the fact that they can be allies in the day to day goings on and often rise to it. My guys have been one step ahead of me (sometimes – we are talking reality here) but when it does happen it sure warms the cackles of my heart.