I have been seeing Facebook posts from frazzled moms, who are lamenting that EVERYTHING concludes in May - - school, spring sports, church events like Awanas, etc. Some of these have a "special" emphasis (translates to Mom as "requirement) every day. "What to get teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week?" "You are supposed to dress as a WHAT today?" (11 minutes before the bus arrives). Believe me, I remember!
It is hard to "appreciate" those days when you are IN them, to remember that every day with your child is a huge blessing. Below, I'll share my sons' Awards Days (and lunch following) celebration from 2005, so that you can have a Mother's Day weekend guffaw, and so that you will know I am always "the perfect mom". <crickets> LOL!
Being the mom of two boys has always been quite the adventure.... To preserve the dignity of the shy, I will refer to my two sons in this memoir as Shnazzle and Shnizzle.
Today was not a typical day.
I went to school and conducted business for about an hour and a
half. Then, I left a little after nine
to go to B_____, for Schnazzle’s awards day presentation. The ceremony was well-done. Schnazzle seemed moderately happy to see me. I had called the house on the way to work
this morning to tell him that I’d be coming.
He seemed very excited. After the
ceremony, I asked him if he wanted me to have lunch with him, and he replied
that he wanted his Dad to. But, Bill had
to go get a tire fixed on the truck; so, he could not stay. I asked Schnazzle again if he wanted me to have
lunch with him and he replied, “if you want to.” That should have been my first clue.
When I met his class at the lunch room about 15 minutes
later, he was very cool towards me, chatting unceasingly to a friend in the
lunch line. This didn’t surprise me too
much, because he had acted that way that last time I’d come to lunch. After getting his tray he went to the table
and moved 3 or 4 times before finally settling in a spot - - at the end of the
table where there were no more seats. He
told me that I could sit “down there somewhere.” I knelt down at the end of the table and said
that obviously he did not want me to have lunch with him, since there was no
place for me to sit. He began to make
excuses, but I just told him I’d go have lunch with Schnizzle later, and then left.
My feelings were so badly hurt. I called Bill and told him about the
incident, and he was as perplexed as me, concerning why Schnazzle would act in such
a way. It was as if he had
absolutely no regard for my feelings or for the fact that I had taken off a
half day from work just to be with him for the awards presentation and for
lunch.
Lunch with Schnizzle nearly an hour later was not a lot
better. Upon arriving, I saw Schnizzle’s
class playing at recess and then he spotted me watching. It was so funny to see how surprised he was. I called out that I’d meet him in the
cafeteria for lunch. He was upset when
he appeared in the lunch line. It was
about his barely missing the National Physical Fitness Award. He missed it in only one of the four
categories - - and then only by 6 seconds.
Apparently, one of his classmates had taunted him about it right before
lunch. When we were about to get our
trays, he left the line to go save us a couple of seats. But, his classmates would not let him sit
where he wanted us to sit. So, that made
him even more upset. He was almost in
tears when he returned to the lunch line.
We sat with his friends, Chase and Jake.
(Jake is the boy whose birthday party he attended last Saturday.) Jake goes to church, and Chase attends ours. They were very nice, but Schnizzle could not get past his upset over “missing the National.” The boy who taunted him apparently, sat at
the end of the next table and kept trying to talk to him to make him feel
better. But, Schnizzle was having none of
that. He was acting jealous and very ungracious to all of them. It was not a
pleasant lunch.
On the way back to work, I
called Bill again to tell him of my experiences with Schnizzle! It was not a good day to have lunch with the
boys.
I talked with both of them after they got home. (I got home from the work before they
got home from school.) Schnazzle said that
the reason he kept moving from seat to seat was that he was trying to avoid the
people he had been told not to sit by at lunch.
Perhaps that was the case, but it did not feel that way to me. I felt like I was "the people" he was trying to avoid.
Still, you just pray and remain faithful to the Lord, while loving on your precious children all the more, thanking God for them as you mold them . . . because so many on this Mother's Day do not have that joy or privilege.
Let's face it - - Mother's Day, supposedly the rose among the weeds of May, ranges from joyful to bittersweet to agonizing for some. Let's love on folks this weekend, being especially kind, because we have no idea what the occasion of Mother's Day dredges up in the spirits and souls of many. Where we can, let's minister to one another, like a sweet sister ministered to me with a precious text a day or two ago. (Thank you, dear Lynn!) And, let's thank God for all the wide-ranging moments of being (or having) a mom.
8Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
9They are a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9 (NIV)
