Bad Mother Chronicles, part 1196

Someday I will get a reputation as a competent mother. It may not be until my kids go to college and they don't need me to call their professors for them, but it WILL happen.

Someday was definitely not today.

Today I let Ironflower and Lovebug climb on the snow piles and iced over playground after school. It was sunny and well over 40, so a number of kids were actually playing after school. It was nice. But Hugmonkey got bored quickly, since I didn't trust him on the ice and snow. Though it was fun to chase him through the impromptu kickball game a bunch of third graders were attempting. Anyway, I yelled to the big kids that it was time to leave. They began making their way across the icy playground.

I looked down and Hugmonkey wasn't there.

He was half way across the blacktop, heading for the door into the school building. Or the parking lot. It was hard to tell which. Luckily I caught up with him. Actually, I didn't really catch up with him so much as one of Ironflower's friend's moms blocked his run. So then Ironflower came running up. When I looked to see where Lovebug was, I discovered that he was still on the playground.

I yelled to him that it was time to leave. He yelled back, "I know - but I can't!" He'd fallen in the icy snow, another mom helpfully mentioned to me. He told me he was stuck. Ironflower offered to rescue him and walked around to where I could see him better. He kept slipping, but he made it. In tears. I felt horrible. Not only did I let him play on the ice, I didn't even watch him while he was on there!

How in the hell do people handle more than 3 kids? Or triplets?

It's really a wonder that Kate and Jon Gosselin aren't MORE insane.