10/23/2007

The Bad Mother Chronicles, part 487

Apparently I am a bad mother in ways I didn't even know about.

Picking up Ironflower from school today was ALMOST pleasant (For the reasons why this is such a big deal, go here. . Or here. After exhausting Lovebug at a new park, he conveniently fell asleep in the car. He even stayed asleep when I pulled into Ironflower's school to park. I left him sleeping and ventured to the playground. Ironflower ran to me happily. Mrs. G gave her a big hug good-bye and praised her outgoing nature (making all those stupid sign-up sheets I had to create for the Halloween party worth it). All was so right with the world that Ironflower and I paused on the sidewalk to chat about her day.

And that's when I saw one little boy take his brother's cup and drink from it. They too were paused on the sidewalk, though their mom was chatting with other moms, not them. Anyway, the brother protested and the mom flipped. She shrieked about the perils of drinking from other people's cups and proceeded to wipe down the cup with an alcohol wipe before handing it back to the original owner.

You know what I do when Lovebug takes Ironflower's cup and drinks from it? I grab it back from him and give it to her. Or sometimes I give her his. I just never thought it was a big deal. Ever since the first time a six month old Ironflower grabbed the straw of my Diet Coke and started drinking, I've been very lax about the family sharing cups. I never realized it was a battle I should have been fighting.

Will I ever leave that school without being emotionally scarred?


3 comments:

captain corky said...

I'm not to worried about germs affecting my son. From now on when I take Max outside I'm going encase him in a plastic bubble.

Tracy said...

I think the world's gone goofy about germs! (And understand that I worked for 7 years as a nursing home administrator so I'm extremely familiar with the principles of infection control.) My theory is that life is messy and a moderate amount of germs just builds our children's immune systems. I keep a clean house, my kids were always clean at the start of the day and I just don't sweat the small stuff.

Jerseygirl89 said...

Tracy - Thank you - I especially like your point about your kids being clean at the start of the day - I totally agree.