As often as I
warn people not to put me on a pedestal, they do anyway. Perhaps just the fact that we have so many
children is grounds for this, so every now and then I must just tell some tales
to prove them wrong.
One year when we
had eight children, I took all the ones who were too small to actually attend
school to see their big brothers in a Christmas play. I was quite particular to dress everyone up
in their best. I had all the girls in cute matching Christmas dresses and had
even made myself a matching maternity dress for I was expecting again. I was also rather proud of the fact that I
had finally potty trained Naomi. She was sitting on my lap in her cute little
frilly underwear that I let her wear and we were all engrossed in the play when
suddenly, my lap was flooded. As my face
turned red, I realized I was trapped.
Mark hadn’t come along so if I got up and left with Naomi, all the other
little children would reveal their true behavior patterns while I was out
changing her and then too, I was soaked and didn’t bring a spare dress along in
my diaper bag. Finally I just sat
stiffly through the rest of the program with Naomi on my lap and didn’t visit
with anyone on our way out the door. I
was hoping someone might think my water had
broken instead of suspecting that
I was soaked with urine but once again I had to just forget my pride and
realize perhaps my potty training methods weren’t fool proof. We all made it home and I may be the only one
who even remembers that night unless there are acquaintances of mine out there
somewhere still wondering why I was so unfriendly one winter evening.
Publicity comes
our way every now and then. One year we
had a call from a local newspaper asking if they could do a story on our
family. At first we turned them down, but on further reflection we decided to
go ahead and let the paper run a story.
They sent a photographer and a very nice young lady out to interview us. She asked everyone questions and spent a good
part of the day with us. The story ran
on the front cover of our local paper on Mother’s Day and the headline
proclaimed in big bold letters “I’m Never Tired and I’m Never Bored”.
I got more
response from that headline that I ever dreamed possible especially since it
was a misquote and I actually said,” I’m never lonely and I’m never bored”
I sent a copy of
the article to my mother without explanation and she called up and accused me
of being in denial. While the reporter
called me up to apologize for the mistake, she never printed a correction and,
now that almost nine years have passed, every now and then I’ll run into
someone who says
“Oh, are you
that lady in the paper who is never tired?”
About two
weeks after that, I was out in the car and got pulled over by a policeman. I was pretty sure I hadn’t been speeding but as he scolded me for having my
car out of inspection, I was envisioning
a new headline Mother of 13 Cited For
Improperly Securing two year old in Car Seat.
That would make me sound like the Mother of the Year. Mark had our van so I had 5 preschoolers in a
car designed for 4 passengers and according to the car seat law; some of them
were illegally buckled in. I wouldn’t
have even gone out, but David and Noah’s first grade class was having a
Mother’s Lunch which all good mothers must attend. So, while doing my duty I was “forced’ to
violate the law. Well, such is life. I suppose most mothers don’t have 5
preschoolers to take with them to a first grade luncheon.
The point is, I’m
as normal as everyone else, I just cook in bigger pots. Our life is full of
teenage drama and sibling rivalry just like the rest of the world. Every morning I get up and ask God for the
grace to make it through the day with my sanity intact and He has been
faithful. I wouldn’t trade one tiny
humbling moment that my children have put me through all unintentionally and I
am looking forward to a few more before the house falls quiet at last.
No comments:
Post a Comment