Bad Mommy Moment

Hannah has recently taken up Belly Dancing with me. We go to the classes together and we have a ball. She loves the shimmies and shakes and she's super-flexible - able to do far more with her tiny limbs than I ever could. All in all, it's a great mom-daughter bonding time.

Two weeks ago on belly dancing night, it was a particularly cold evening to be going out. Hannah was really keen to go, so I couldn't say no. We enjoyed the lesson, but when she came home, she began coughing. I didn't think too much of it and sent her to bed.

The next morning, she coughed through breakfast. Having forgotten about her coughing spell the previous evening (bad mommy moment number 1), and knowing that she can be a bit of a drama queen, I told her to give it a rest and eat her breakfast. She got ready for school, all the while coughing and complaining that she was feeling sick. I rolled my eyes and put it down to tiredness from the fun the night before. Later that morning, I waved her a cheery goodbye at her classroom door.

The phone call later that day went something like this:

"Hello, Mrs Dunlop?"

"Yes?"

"It's Mrs X from XX Primary. Hannah's here in my office and she's having an asthma attack and she has a temperature. Could you come and fetch her?"

Um, why yes, I'll fetch her, and while I'm about it, I think I'll knock my head against the closest brick wall, all the while chanting: "Bad Mommy. Bad Mommy."

Your homework for this week is: Write a Bad Mommy Moment post from the past 2 weeks. Don't be shy: you know you've had one...

3 things that could be frowned upon

My homework:

I smack

Don't hate me: I smack sometimes. Very occasionally. But yes, I smack. All the books say you shouldn’t. My heart tells me I shouldn’t. But I smack sometimes when things are getting out of hand. Like when Jonah bites Hannah because he feels like it, or when James taunts Hannah or Jonah because he can, or when James refuses, point blank, to tidy his room after I’ve asked him 50 times to do so, and then when he does, it’s with such an attitude that he throws things.

I let my kids eat a biscuit when they wake up

It all started as something I did when I was pregnant. I was avoiding coffee, so the only thing that would wake me up was a sugary biscuit. The children caught onto it and now it’s a tradition: they wake up, come into our bedroom and have a biscuit before they go and play.

I allow my children way too much leeway in the Sleeping-On-Their-Own department

James slept in our room, in a cot, until he was almost 2. Hannah slept in our bed until she was almost 3. Jonah has recently been moved to his own bed in James’s room but he has yet to spend an entire night there. I’ve also allowed them to manipulate me into lying next to them until they fall asleep: we did that with James and Hannah until they were 3. I just heard from my dad that he doesn’t do that when he babysits: he gives Jonah his bottle and then walks out of the room. Funny how he gets it right but I can’t…

Introducing Neen

1. Thing 1, Thing 2 and Thing 3, otherwise known as James, Hannah and Jonah.

2. Three things you wouldn't know about me:

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'd know the good, the bad and the ugly about me, but here are 3 things you might not know:
a) I recently chopped all my hair off. I had waist-length hair for about 10 years, and long hair for another 10. I got sick of it and had it hacked. I'm fairly happy with it. Most days.
b) Most of the time, I feel like an imposter at everything: motherhood, my job and being a grown-up.
c) I wish I could write for a living. It would be a dream come true.

3. Some things you don't know about my kids:

a) I've assigned really odd nicknames to them all: James: Bubby; Hannah: Whirly; Jonah: Woolies. They all mean something special.
b) James is something of a maths and English prodigy. He surprises me sometimes.
c) Jonah is a mini-me.

4. Quote/saying that best describes the way I feel about being a mommy:

I'll quote myself: "Mommies are people too".

5. My Famous Mommy Role Model:

There's a famous mommy role model out there?

6. If I could have one wish granted for my kids, it would be:

to grow up confident and secure in who they are. Unlike their silly mommy.