Mom guilt

Wesley got me with "mom guilt" on Tuesday morning. Let me back up...school mornings are rough, to say the least. Wesley is not what I would call a morning person by any stretch of the imagination. I wake him up and he is pleasant AT FIRST. I sit on his bed and he gives me a hug and tells me good morning. So far, so good. We get up so he can go to the bathroom and then head downstairs. This is where it all starts to unravel...On school mornings, he has to go downstairs and eat breakfast almost immediately. On non-school mornings, he has time to play for a little bit, but the meltdown comes when I say its time for breakfast, usually because he doesn't want to eat (no surprise there).

So Tuesday morning, he climbs into his chair and starts sobbing and telling me how he just doesn't want to go to school. The usual crying is related to how he doesn't want to eat, he's not hungry, etc. Back to Tuesday - in my early morning mind, I start thinking that he is being bullied, how he must hate school, how mean I am for making him go to school, how hungry he must be all day at school. You get the picture. We made it through breakfast, and I honestly cannot remember how the eating went because the whole time I am thinking of all the things of which I might be guilty.

I drive him to school (still thinking of all the ways I am mean by making him go to school at all) and as soon as we put his lunch in his cubby, he tells me how excited he is to be at school. He starts dancing around and giggling. SERIOUSLY?? I spent the last 45 minutes feeling like a horrible human being and mother and all it was all part of the master plan of a three year-old. Oh, how easily I am now manipulated.

The good news though is he told me the names of his friends at school..."Zach Brown, Marilee and Kevin." Awfully specific names, but I couldn't find those names on any of the cubbies in his room at school after a cursory glance. Maybe he has made them up? More work of the mind of a three year-old? Kinda like his "dogs" that he drags around the yard. The "dogs" are actually two bungee cords, both named "Odio," according to Wesley. More on that later with pictures to attempt to explain.