Day 329

Monday nights are an endurance event at our house.  My kids both have a tight schedule of activities and lessons that keep them out of the house until bedtime.  When we finally get home after a day of school, work and extracurricular fun, I feel like I’ve run a triathlon—the IronMom.   It sounds a bit over the top, but I’d rather get most of our activities knocked out in one evening so that we can retain one or two activity free evenings during the week.

But there is still homework on those ridiculous nights. So each child works on her own assignments while the other one is at either gymnastics or piano lessons.

My first grader is supposed to read a book aloud each night for homework, any book will do. During last week’s manic Monday she forgot one.

What to do?

We weren’t anywhere near a library, too far from home and I didn’t know anyone who lived close.

Ah, Ha! There was Super Target on the corner.  They sell books and I needed cilantro and eggs as well.

So, I marched my seven-year-old back to the book section, told her to carefully pick one out and settled her on the floor in the aisle to read it out loud.   When she was done, we gently placed the book back on the shelf, bought our groceries and left.

As a parent, I would hope that one day as adults my well-adjusted happy children will entertain their friends with amusing anecdotes about their wacky mother and their childhood adventures.

Although it is possible, those same stories will be told in therapy instead.