Daily Archives: May 14, 2008

Last night mom guilt kicked in again. Every task I needed to complete seemed to take twice as long as expected, so by the end of the day, Ellie was feeling a bit neglected. We didn’t play outside as long as she had wanted and we never got to that long-awaited tea party with Cinderella and Strawberry Shortcake. Before tucking her in bed I told her: “Tomorrow you don’t have school, so we can do whatever you want to do.” She was thrilled, and I silently patted myself on the back for being such a flexible mom. Problem solved; mom guilt abated. Then today dawned, and I realized my four-year-old expert on semantics was going to take me to the cleaners.

We started by watching a show I can’t stand. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with the show, but it doesn’t teach anything and one of the main characters has a speech impediment. Why do they do that? Their target audience is toddlers and preschoolers who are still learning to speak properly and so they create a character who will reinforce incorrect pronunciations. It irks me. Anywho, I digress. We watch this show for a bit then headed to the mall, her favorite place in the world next to Grandma’s. We visited all her favorite stores; threw money in the fountain and at a couple new outfits and a pair of sandals. We rode the carousel, got smoothies and Auntie Anne’s pretzels, then visited the pet store. After that, she was done with the mall and ready for IKEA.

A normal mother would have put a stop to it at this point, but I did need to pick up a couple things at IKEA, so I trotted along behind my headstrong daughter. After about an hour of having formal dinner parties in each of the display kitchens and tea parties in all the living rooms, Zach had had enough. I had had enough.

Enduring many tears and pleas for more, I prodded two over-tired kids through checkout and to the van. They were much happier once outside. While strapping in Zach and handing snacks to each of my little cherubs, I smiled at Isabel. “Have you had a good day?”

“Well, Mom, it wasn’t the best day.” Isabel sighed heavily.
“What do you mean?” I went on to list the many fun things we did at her request.
“But we didn’t go to the park!”

Sound familiar? How often do we whine to God about never having enough. Life isn’t perfect enough. We do all the right things and still Sally Sinner has more than we do. Wah, wah, wah. We are given grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing, but we just can’t get past wanting a little bit more.

I don’t have to work. I have an extremely attractive, loving, wonderful, patient, helpful husband who is a brilliant man and an amazing father. I have two gorgeous, healthy, intelligent, creative children. I have a church family I love, tons of friends, a great neighborhood … I get along beautifully with my mother-in-law! What more could I possibly want? Oh, just a bigger house and more free time and a vacation home in the Carribbean; a trip to Europe and a green thumb and … the list goes on.

God has given me everything, and I refuse to be a spoiled child because of it.

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

Psalm 105:1-3 (NIV)