Jill from Scary Mommy has a fun contest going on right now. She wants to know what makes US “scary moms”. She defines what it means to be a Scary Mommy and you might be surprised to learn that it doesn’t entail intimidating your child at all…though it can if you want it to.
After you write your Scary Mommy post you can link up on Jill’s page and the best part is that she’s going to award prizes to the top two scariest mommies at the end of the week. Even better than that…one of the prizes is a Flip camera!!
Soooo naturally I’m going to play along, however this is a tough one because I’m so super duper nice all the time. As I sit down to write this post I realize there are many directions I can go with it…I can write about what I do that may be perceived as “mean” or “scary” to my kids…like the time I completely lost my patience and screamed shut up in three year old Maile’s face.
Ahem.
A proud moment for me.
I can tell you about a time when I “felt” like a scared mommy…for example when I was three months pregnant and went in for a check up and the doctor nonchalantly said “you know sometimes these little babies just stop growing” as she searched for a heartbeat. I swallowed the lump in my throat when she finally discovered that elusive heart beating during an impromptu ultra sound.
We named her Laina.
I could talk about how I’m a scary mommy because I eat all the ice cream and then tell the kids their Dad did it. I could talk about how I’m a scary mommy because I sometimes don’t start laundry until every last stitch of clothing in this house is dirty…or because I don’t help my kids brush their teeth until my show is at a commercial break…or because I sometimes don’t change their socks…or because I force them to listen to me sing love songs in the car for long periods of time.
But instead of telling you all those stories that I just told you I decided to take the question to the people who matter.
The children.
Their voices need to be heard.
me: Laina am I sometimes scary?
Laina: Mmm-yeah.
me: Why? What do I do that is kind of mean or scary?
Laina: You be mad at me cause when dad was getting me an went in da bafroom I be scared and choosed my mind I didn’t want him to be da monster.
me: So Daddy is the scary one! What do I do that is SO mean!?!
Laina: You be mad at me cause you tell me to go upstairs and brush are teeth and get are pajamas on and go to sleep nicely and stay in bed.
me: Maile what do you think? What do I do that scares you?
Maile: nuffing scares me. nuffing would scare me…try to scare me an it wouldn’t scare me.
me: But do I ever get angry at you in a way that might scare someone who really gets scared a lot?
Maile: You get angry about me when I be mean to somebody like Laina when I hit her when she whines.
So there you have it. I am clearly THE scariest mom out there.
