Mine was medium sucky. It started with a meltdown by my nine-year-old, who had earlier promised me as a Mother's Day gift that she would not fight for the whole day with her five-year-old sister. Trouble was, the nine-year-old had a playdate on Saturday which turned into a sleepover. This was fine; I really like her friend and think she's a great influence. What's not so fine is that after every playdate, my little diva just falls apart. I don't know why. Maybe it's the strain of Being Nice for too long; maybe she's just high strung. All I know is, it always happens. And it always surprises me. You'd think I'd have a better learning curve by now, but no. So: the nine-year-old is screaming that no, she cannot possibly play with anybody as loathesome as her sister; the five-year-old is crying because her big sister has been ignoring her all weekend and now won't give her the time of day; David is grumpy because of all the screaming, and I just want to leave home. I tell David to take the five-year-old to the park and do something fun, which he does. Then I go to battle with the nine-year-old over the computer, which she is on--AGAIN--having racked up a total of, I don't know, two or three hours of computer time over the last two days. When I tell her her time is up, she defies me; the result is a loss of computer access for the next month. By this time I am ready to drop-kick her off a cliff. I get dressed to go to church and get halfway there before pulling over to have a good cry, because of all this and because....this is the first Mother's Day I've had without my own mother, who died last December.
Everything ended okay. The nine-year-old apologized that night, and agreed that she's been spending too much time on the computer. The five-year-old went to bed happy and singing, as usual. I got to go shopping with my friend Ann and see a movie. My sister called and told me she loved me. All's well that ends well, etc. It's just: whenever there's a bad day, I carry it in my body for the next day or two. I have no shock absorbers. So: onward. Tomorrow will be better.