Medusa sculptureIs expecting a little extra sleep on a Sunday morning so wrong? As my kids get older, I feel I have a right to re-claim some of those things that I sacrificed during those labor-intensive baby and toddler years where you pretty much exist only to serve your spawn.

So tell me ... ("no" ... please tell me the correct answer is "no, I'm not wrong.").

Example: About two years ago, I would have been grateful and smiled like the sun that just peeked through the curtains when my kids would wake up anytime after 6 a.m. I actually considered that sleeping late!

Now that my kids are in grade school, I'm getting spoiled, or at least wanting some of the things I had before they came along. Like going to the bathroom by myself and sleeping a little later on the weekends.

This past weekend, my kids' first cousin slept over. My 5 and 6 year old were so happy and excited that she was visiting, they woke me up extra early Sunday morning. They bounded into my room all cute, rested and bubbly. I got hugs and big sloppy kisses. They wanted a big family breakfast and to play with their cousin, who they don't get to see all the time.

I should have greeted them with a smile, but instead I growled. I should have laughed and said let's all go down and make chocolate chip pancakes!, but instead I threw cereal in a bowl and punished them with an hour earlier bedtime that night. I should have helped them make a fort with the pillows like they asked, but instead I just curled up under a blanket and moped.

I work all week, my nerves are fried, I hardly ever get to sit down, let alone lay down, when I'm home ... I don't think an extra hour or two in bed on a Sunday morning is too much to ask for.

Mom's World and Ideal World, n'er the twain shall meet. So I know I have to get over myself.

At this point I would settle for a few less "mommy medusa moments," what blogger Kami Lewis Levin on The Fence describes as the times when, "the s*****r of a mom I am, the more the kids wanna be with me/touch me/talk to me/play with me/annoy me. It just makes me beat myself up even more. Because I so want to be with them."

She's a working mom, too, trying to manage both kids and career while staying sane and maybe, dare I say it, happy?

Some of the commenters of her blog made an interesting point: You can't be expected to be the perfect happy, mommy all the time. That's a big expectation that will make you a very unhappy mommy.

The important thing is rather that your children get all of you in the time that they have you. That includes the grumpy you, the sad you, the cheerful you, the green you, the pink you. Or, in my case, the always sleepy you.

Do you have "mommy medusa" moments where you wish you could be a better, more loving mom than you think you are?

 

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