Wednesday 15 August 2012

Some Things Never Change

It is said - and I paraphrase - that no matter how much things change, they stay the same. Today's blog is about that. Way back when, before I started blogging, I would often send an email to Rob at work, telling him how my morning had gone - typically the time between when he left, to when I dragged my sorry butt back home, battered and bruised, after getting the kids to school. He started forwarding these emails to his co-workers, and soon it became a regular occurrence. Entitled "My day so far", my fan base spread, and soon Ana, Brenda,Silvana and Judy were encouraging me to start a blog.  Who knew it would end up like this.

So today's episode harkens back to the early days of 'my day so far', when my life could come off the rails and spin out of control, all before 8 o'clock in the morning. This happened a week or so ago when Maddie was staying with us. We - as in Grady, Sid and I - had to be up early, so I could take them to swimming lessons. What the hell was I thinking, booking swimming lessons at 9:00 AM ?.  This particular day, Sid was not in the best of moods, and actually neither was Lindsay, but that was because I had woken her up early so she could make me French Toast for breakfast. I don't cook but my daughter does !

Anyway while I was talking to Maddie in the kitchen, I noticed that Sid had walked in and was standing around listening to us. After a couple of minutes I asked Sid if she wanted something and she explained that she had spilled her chocolate milk. My response was instantaneous, "What the hell are you standing there for, grab a towel and clean it up" I yelled as visions of chocolate milk soaking into the couch and carpet, went through my head. Lindsay flies into action with a roll of paper towels, while Sid starts sniveling "Don't yell at me, it's not my fault".  It was her versus the chocolate milk, so I'm not sure whose fault she thought it could be. By the time she makes it back to the scene of the crime, Lindsay has done what she can, and tosses the wet towels to (or maybe at) Sid to put in the bin. That throws Sid into a tizzy, because the towels were 'dirty', and a fight ensues.

Long story short, Sid launches herself upstairs, bemoaning the fact that she has a terrible sister, a terrible mother, wishes she wasn't part of such a terrible family, and the kicker, we wouldn't miss her if she were dead. Meet my daughter the drama queen. I've had enough by this time and send Grady to the basement to grab a duffel bag which I promptly handed to Sid, and instructed her to start packing. This sets Lindsay off, and she runs around the kitchen lecturing me, "Don't do this in front of Maddie" "Why are you winding her up before swimming?" "You're making matters worse" etc etc. She was probably right on all counts, but I was on a roll, and I wasn't backing down now. If you show any signs of weakness, these kids are on it like a pack of wild dogs. Any more crap out of Lindsay, and she'd be packing her own bag. I'm sure at that point she probably spat in my French Toast.

Meanwhile Grady has gone up to talk to Sid and managed to convince her not to pack her bag. Curses !  She was so close. So here we are, not even 8:15 A.M. and I've got one daughter not talking to me, the other wanting to leave home, I hadn't even had breakfast and I still had 3 hours of swimming lessons to get through. So how is your day shaping up ?




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