Some parents and kids really have their act together. Some days I feel like one of those families. Most days, I do not.I found myself without an umbrella during a torrential afternoon storm last week. I had just been for a run so a little rain didn't bother me. The problem was transporting my daughter from child care to the parked car sans umbrella.
I grabbed a clean towel from my gym bag. Another mom was picking up her daughter and stood in a perfectly pressed (and dry) suit, holding a large umbrella. As I came barreling through the door, in sweaty gym shorts, drenched in rain, and holding a towel, she said, "You must be Emilia's Mom."
Indeed. I must be.
"No umbrella," I apologized.
"Just left the gym..." I mumbled.
She smiled, very kindly, and strolled casually to the car with her daughter under the giant umbrella. Emilia and I made a mad dash for our car, getting pelted with rain despite my best attempts to keep the towel steady.
It got me thinking about all the times I am wiping mac and cheese off her face as we arrive at a relative's house, or I realize in Target (too late) that I put her diaper on a little crooked as we haphazardly ran out the door. It happens a lot.
My colleagues and friends assure me that I am not alone. My boss reminded me of the time she arrived at the pediatrician's office, only to discover her daughter was wearing swim bottoms.
"Where's your pants?" she asked her daughter.
"I AM wearing pants," was the response.
My boss also advised that in the future, I will turn the car around dozens of times when I hear the Markergirlphrase, "Do I need shoes?"coming from the backseat.
Maybe having it all together "runs in the family." Recently, my mom told me about picking up my 2-year-old niece for a trip to the beach. Katelynn greeted her at the door in her swimsuit, sandals and sunglasses -- with every inch of visible skin covered in purple permanent marker. Rather than scrub her skin off, my brother had decided to let the marker fade on its own.
"You know, not one person made a comment at the beach," my mom said, almost amazed. "Such nice people."
Every parent has these no-umbrella, child-missing-pants, toddler-covered-in-marker moments, right? So why does it seem like some of us have more than others?
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