The mommy badge

When I was growing up, I would occasionally hear my mother say that she wanted to turn in her mommy badge. I'm not sure I ever completely understood what she meant until I became a mother. And I must say that as wonderful as motherhood is, there are days when I want to turn in my mommy badge, move to Africa and change my name to anything other than mom.

Today has been one of those days when, no matter how good my intentions, I just seem to be in a fowl mood. I have the intention of being calm, patient, loving, caring and kind, but what comes out of my mouth is the exact opposite. So after snapping at my children, I take a deep breathe, count to ten, apologize and pray that bedtime comes quickly. I think I can safely blame some of my insanity on lack of sleep and the rest on hormones. Although it would help if my three year old would quit crying at the drop of a hat, and if the stupid garage would go up the first time instead of me having to make it go up and down twenty times before it finally opens. Stupid garage.

The nice thing about other jobs is that you could, if you really wanted to, quit. You can't quit motherhood. You can lock yourself in the bathroom and pray for patience, but children never go away. You can't really move to Africa and you know deep down that even if you changed your name, every time a small child called for mom, you'd probably look to see if you were the 'mom' being searched for.

So, I'm going to go suck down the rest of my Pepsi, (it's not even diet today) pray for bedtime and hope I wake up on the right side of the bed tomorrow. Oh, and today, I want to turn in my mommy badge!!