Old Mom Buffet

I swear, lately motherhood has been conducted on a wing and a prayer. It's not like the kids have done anything particularly wrong, but it just feels like my super-mother powers are tingling a lot. I worry, I yell, I question, I deduct, I presume, I assume....it's like a smorgasbord of parenting all in one big ole buffet. If it's not a pack of adolescents taking over my house and throwing apples at passing cars (yeah, that was great when the neighbor called to tell me that), then it's the nearly adult one sulking one moment and bubbling the next. It's like an amusement park and each of my kids is a ride. And just when you think you want to cry or jump or quit, they do something really nice (i.e. the ride stops and the relief floods you).

One of my new guilty TV pleasures is "Wife Swap," where two moms go and live in each other's families. Of course to increase the drama, they try and pick two women and two families who are POLAR opposites. Watching this, somehow, makes me feel a teeny bit better about my parenting skills. Not because I'm better than these women, but more because being a good mother is incredibly subjective. What's good for one family is often not good for another, which is why it's just amazing that the Brady Bunch ever worked out!! No, seriously, it made me think that although I could improve a lot on many facets of myself, I'm not all that bad. Crazy, I know. Hey, I figure if it gets me through another week at the mommy buffet, then why not?!