Case in point. On Sunday (three whole days ago...that's how long it took me to decide if I should share this or not!) I made a serious mama error. We were trying to get the whole gang out the door for sunday school and since Brent and I were teaching we couldn't be late. So after everybody was fed, cleaned, and clothed Brent started getting Ephraim strapped into his carseat while I checked on Sarah who was going potty. I hurried her along and we dashed to the car and arrived just in time.
A few hours later once we were back home Brent was lifting Sarah up into her booster seat when he made quite a discovery...a panty-less Pi'bears! My first thought was that she must have had an accident in the church nursery and they'd just taken her undies off since she was wearing a dress. And then I remembered our frazzled scene in the bathroom from earlier in the morning. When I went in to hurry her up she had said, "uh oh! My panties came off!" and I replied with, "I'll put them back on in just second." Oops. I forgot. The often-unanswered "in just a second" came back to haunt me. And so that is how it came to be that a panty-less Pi'bears in a beautiful spring dress showed up in the church nursery and played her heart out while occasionally flashing the world her bits! I was so moritified that I immediately had to call the girls in the nursery to babble on and on about what a dummy I am. (Megan can testify to that)
Anyway, the moral of this story is that I am not nearly as organized and pulled together as many of you might think that I am. I try to be, I swear I do. But I'm really just a big work in progress!
In light of that confession is anyone else willing to share? I'd love to hear your own "oops" moments. Or we can just leave it at that...with everyone basking in my dummyness. :)
Just one of the Pi'bears...fully clothed...
29 comments:
If that is one of your biggest Mommy mistakes, you are doing pretty good! You seem to be a wonderful mom and also a great photographer. We all make mistakes. I'm trying to think of little silly mistakes I have made with my 2 yo daughter. She just seems to blurt out things like "I tooted" or "I see Mommy's butt" while in public, or even church! I guess that is our mistake for saying those things at home (we don't talk like that often, she just tends to absorb those kind of phrases)!
It is funny that you mentioned this. My cousin was rushing to church one Sunday and forgot to put panties on her three year old. Well, her precious little girl decided to do show and tell in her Sunday school class!!!! Let's just say it was a Sunday that my cousin will never forget.
It is funny that you mentioned this. My cousin was rushing to church one Sunday and forgot to put panties on her three year old. Well, her precious little girl decided to do show and tell in her Sunday school class!!!! Let's just say it was a Sunday that my cousin will never forget.
Marcellina
I can't think of a specific less than stellar mom moment right now(but trust me there are many). I did want to say though that I love to see and hear about other moms that have these moments because it makes me feel less inadequate. I think we as moms do a great disservice to others in the mom club when we make it seem that life as a mom is all roses and sunshine all the time. Being a mom is hard sometimes and thats ok. I'm not good at it 24-7 and I'm ok with that. I still try hard and I too wake up each day and say to myself this will be the day that it all goes as I see it in my head. But inevitably the day strays from the "ideal". Life with kids is a challenge but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I love reading your blog - the good, the bad and the ugly(although I don't recall any ugly)! Thanks for sharing with us.
Claire
What a relief to hear. I love your blog but feel I can't live up to your perfection. It's nice to hear you are human and make mommy errors too.
I still think your fabulous though!!
LOL! Thanks for the giggle at your expense this morning. And I agree, we're all works in progress. My 10 year old would probably be happy to come over here and tell all my stories ;) I can think of so many mommy moments but the most recent one was more of a daddy moment. We had to go into school for a conference with Ty's teacher. She brought up that he had recently googled the word "fart" on a school computer. Nice huh? Thankfully his teacher thought it was moderately funny because I mentioned that at some point in time, most men have probably done the same thing. My husband just sat there in the tiny little 4th grade chair and giggled. Busted. Oh good grief!!
Oh yes! I told Halston to get dressed for school (all his clothes laid out) and he did, all the way down to his boots. He needed to go potty before gettin in the car for school, and come to find out his underwear were on backwards..I had to strip him down and change him so he wouldnt surprise his teachers with the beautiful "thong" he was sporting!! Ha!!!
Thanks for making me feel better you guys! I swear this is nowhere near my biggest mistake but it seemed to be...how shall I put this...GLARING! :) HA!
Claire, I so totally agree with you about the whole mama disservice thing. And Shar I'll try to share more "real" moments here. Trust me...there's no perfection around these parts!
Thanks for all your comments you guys!
Oh boy, I have more than one, but one that made me feel the worst was this...
Last spring, my husband and I were spending every free moment in the yard because we had just moved into a new house, so everything had to be done. Grass, landscaping, etc. I would usually put my daughter down for a nap, and once she was asleep, I'd go out with the baby monitor and help my husband. About 20 minutes later, I realized that I hadn't heard a peep over the monitor, so I decided to go in and check on her. She was screaming at the top of her lungs! I had turned on the monitor, but the cord was just barely unplugged so nothing was transmitting through it! When I got to her, she was so worked up it took like what seemed like forever for her to calm down. I had no idea how long she had been crying. I felt so awful, so I just sat with her the rest of the day and held her as much as I could. She'll never remember it, but I still feel bad about that!
Yeah, you're normal! :)
You forgot panties....last month, I forgot a kid.
I am a new mom of 2, my second son was bron in February. When he turned 6 weeks I started bringing both him and my 2 year old to the YMCA daycare so I could work out. Well, one day I picked up Spencer from Daycare and headed out the door.
We were a block away before Spencer asked "Where's Lincoln?". It took about 2 seconds for my head and heart to realize what happened. I have never turned around and drove so fast in my life!
I rushed back in to the YMCA Daycare and there was Linc, sleeping away like the good baby he is. Now I do a head count before we leave. (Pretty pathetic to do a head count when the total is 2!)
I know someday he will act out and I will blame it on me forgetting him at 8 weeks old.
When I was pregnant with my daughter I was rushing around trying to get my then almost 4 year old out the door for a day at the splash park with my mom and my niece and nephew. I had everything ready, packed the lunch, had the swim stuff, son dressed, found the car keys, put my shoes on and walked out the front door. They were doing construction infront of my house pulling out and putting new light posts in, anyways I couldn't figure out why they all turned to stare as I walked down the driveway to the van until I heard my son say, "mommy why don't you have any pants on?" I nearly died and dragged my son back inside to grab my shorts from the dryer. Needless to say I ran to the van not making any eye contact. Not really a mommy mistake but definately a BIG rushing around mommy mistake. Anyways I think you are wonderful, thanks for the giggle!
That's such a funny story...I'm sure it will be told many times over when Pi'Bears is older.
Oh you guys rock! Jen, I am so sorry but I'm giggling my brains out! :) With you, not AT you, of course.
I did the same thing a few weeks ago. I put pants right on Lucy but forgot the diaper (we're in the middle of training...she wears panties at home. I took her all over the place running errands that morning, and just as we were leaving the fabric store I picked her up and held her against my hip, only to discover she was soaking wet through her corderoy pants. I thought her diaper was leaking funny--until I got to the van and realized my mistake! I'm so thankful she didn't pee all over a seat at Tim Horton's the hour previous.
You are a wonderful mom!
I think those "stellar" mom moments happen to the best of us!
That story made me giggle :)
I took my daughter (then about 3 months old) to the store on an unseasonably warm January day. She had a big blowout poop as we were getting into the car I have a hatchback trunk, so I put a blanket down on the flat trunk surface to change her. The poop was ALL over her clothes. Great. I reached into the diaper bag for the spare set of clothes...which wasn't there.
I considered bringing her into the nearby Old Navy to buy her new clothes, but I was embarrassed to bring a nothing-but-a-diaper-clad baby into the store so everyone could see how irresponsible I was!
I buckled her into the carseat in nothing but a diaper and drove home.
:)
-Monica
I noticed none of your nice friends have mentioned how you're creating a Britney in the making!! LOL!! Thanks for the giggle...but you're still pretty darn perfect!
just this morning i feel like we need a breath of fresh air, more like START OVER, so after a feeding, i get both kids into the jogger and plan a walk and to end up at the park...it is low 50s so i wrap alla in a blanket in the jogger and tell her i'm going to grab her fleece out of the car, only i never did, and when we got there she said she was too cold to play! ugh! i was so sad and felt so bad that we'd walked all the way there and she actually said she was too cold to play. AND she said 'i forgive you mommy.'
and for the record i am ALWAYS frazzled.
I am sure there are going to be many many more of those oops! things. I can attest to that. I don't think you are a dummy. All part of being a parent!
Well, I'm not a mommy, but here's my story:
Caroline and I were shopping at Target last summer (she was 2 1/2). I had her in the cart and she was content, so I'm trying on sunglasses, with my back turned to the cart...
Anyway, out of the blue, Caroline yells, "Renee!" and, of course, I did, the "one minute, sweet girl..." thing, and continued to peruse the shelf...
But she keeps yelling my name, so I whip around, and there she is, covered in blood with her hands up to her nose. She is prone to bloody noses, but she's never had one outside of the house.
Well, I had no kleenex on me, so I picked that girl up out of the cart and we ran to the bathroom (of course, all of the clerks at the registers are staring and going "Oh my god, is she OK??"). We finally got the bleeding to stop, and cleaned up her face and hands. Then we went to the kids clothing section, where I promptly pulled off her stained shirt, put a new one on her, and pulled the tag off (I gave it to the cashier in the check out lane, of course), which she thought was super cool.
Anyway, I felt like the most inattentive nanny ever...
It's a good thing Caroline's mommy is so chill, because, lemme tell you, nannies make their fair share of "mommy mistakes" as well...
Speaking of which...
you really should do a "mama monday" post on babysitters.
I have a LOT of input in that department...
Oh it must be in the air. I was debating if I would share this one or not, oh here it goes. Zoe is full blown sassiness at times. Today she would not listen while playing with the neighborhood kids and so I sent her inside to take a nap. Well, she screamed all the way to our yard, turning around to spit (zurburt spit) twice, then up our steps, walked inside, turned around and spit once more and THEN closed the sliding door and locked us out of the house. About 10 minutes later I saw her peeking out the window, minus a shirt. A friend of mine asked if I thought she was naked and I said of course. (Somehow, in that little mind being naked was payback for sending her inside) I told her to unlock the door and there she stood for the entire neighborhood to see, naked as can be. Then she unlocked the door and mooned everyone as she ran away! Oh, it makes a mama so proud of all the manners she has worked so hard to instill in her children!
THIS HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I WAS LITTLE...I'M STILL HEARING ABOUT IT. MY MOTHER WAS SPEECHLESS WHEN MY DAD PICKED ME UP WHILE OUT SHOPPING AND THEY STOPPED TO TALK TO SOME PEOPLE THEY KNEW. BARE BOTTOM EXPOSED FOR EVERYONE AND SHE SAID THAT MY DADS FACE WAS PRICELESS. THIS IS ONE THING THAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO LAUGH ABOUT FOR YEARS TO COME. SORRY ERIN...IT ISN'T ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT WILL BE EASILY FORGOTTEN. NO HARM DONE AND YOU ARE STILL A PERFECT MOMMA IN MY EYES. HUGS~
Lori
Hey Erin! You know if you keep a dozen plates spinning all at once, you're bound to drop one eventually, right? That's how I usually feel when I have a mommy "oops!". The funny thing is the more kids you have, the more often your question changes from "What will I do next?" to "When is this going to happen again?". I think your lack of panty placement awareness (the PC term) is quite a common thing. I seem to remember my little sister going to Sunday school without undies at the age of three. We all had a good chuckle. Come to think about it, I am shocked that I DON'T have one of those stories about my girls! I wish I had a really great story to share, but after 11 years of parenting all of the OOPSs turn into "Well, at least no one got hurt!" stories. I guess the funniest, most recent moment was when I was doing a little vegging on the couch after finishing some coursework. My son, Ethan comes up to me and says "Mommy, I have popcorn in my nose" I thought, "we haven't had any popcorn, so it must just be a little boogey". I had him blow twice into the tissue, and sure enough, out pops this little piece of something that very well could have been a piece of popcorn in its former life. I felt kind of bad that I had missed that one, but couldn't deny myself the chuckle anyway. After all, he was honest...it was popcorn!
The blanket that Brent is laying on in the yard behind PigBear is awesome!!!!
-Bach
oh man, I have the oops mommy moments all the time! I had them more when Anna was really little. It seemed like I could never get my head on straight. Even now there are so many times that I forget something. I cant tell you how many times I have run out of the house with her only in a diaper, only to discover it when we are in the grocery store parking lot! lol! How could I not notice that my kid was basically naked? lol!
That just cracked me up!!! Thanks for sharing...
I read your blog a lot and hope that you don't think that I am some weird stalker person, I found your blog through Janice and Jaidean...I love your Mama Monday posts!!!
This is one of the sweetest things I've ever read! I stumbled across your blog and noticed we have a bit in common - I'm currently a kindergarten teacher and photographer, Christian mom of two precious kids (affectionately called Doodle and Nubbin) and wife to one incredible Godly husband. Nice to "meet" you.
Natasha
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