Mad House

Spring is in the air. Warm air, sun and rain and birds chirping, it is all somewhat early for our part of the country but I am not complaining. I will take warm air and sunshine any day of the week. While nature is coming together in harmony my family is going mad. Not the crazy kind of mad, but the full out "You tick me off" kind of mad and apparently I am the bad guy…I mean really who else would be the problem? Its big mouthed mama, flapping her gums and getting everybody all riled up! Sorry, my southern roots are showing.

Youngest mad person: My youngest has decided she will now drive, which I think is great. The downside is she is in a full on quest to get her license and the only person that is available to ride with her as she works towards the drivers test, is me. Mark is working (YAY) and Aly is not old enough…that leaves me. On Saturday I rode along with my young chicklet to run some errands. Trying to do my co-pilot duties thoroughly I pointed out a few small errors along the way. The pressure between us was mounting and the final cork popper was a simple turn. There are two stories of how this turn went down and mine is the accurate one…I'm the Mom and head driving co-pilot so I am right.

Anyway, we are coming towards the corner where we need to turn and I say "Slow down", no response from the driver's seat, so I repeat, "Slow down" still no response, so as we turned the corner and I saw my life flash before my eyes I screamed "SLOW DOWN!!!". What happened next is what turns families from normal to dysfunctional, it was an emotional brawl with each of us blaming the other and there was a significant amount of yelling. It all ended with me in the driver's seat taking us home and my youngest daughter's weekend cut short.

Next I have the middle daughter, who has been working on 12 scholarship forms which are all due the end of this week. She has gripped and complained about the information they are asking, the size of the lines and endless issues about things that we cannot control and many before her have dealt with, including my oldest daughter. I have explained to her that everyone has gone through this and that the idea is to focus on the scholarship its self. I have pointed out issues that I have seen that she might want to address and her response was practically a repeat of the whole "SLOW DOWN event from Saturday. Her call to arms was to tell that me "I am 17 MOM! I know what I am doing!" Like I would suddenly wake up and say "Oh my gosh, 17 already? Where did the time go? I am so sorry you should be raising yourself now, my bad!" I am 52 and I have a lot more life time under my belt tootsie, so suck it up and listen. Better yet, I will shut up and in a few years when you are paying your school loan and complaining, I will just stare at you.

Finally, my husband…a good man, a big heart and very mad at me. I have put the hammer down about this basement remodel project and this was received like all the other advice and guidance of the last few days.

I am sorry, but I cannot take an unorganized kayos. I also feel like my stress about the dust level and the lack of real energy is fair. I have offered to help, I have suggested we hire someone and I have tried to keep quiet (big job). Nothing has worked to move things forward so I stepped in with a vacuum and some Pledge to get things tidied up.

My families all excited about me "helping" when it is on their terms. The thing is that I too have skin in every one of their games and I do not care if you think I am right or how old you are or even if you do not want my help, I still have feelings and I still stand by you even on your worst day. The fact that for the last couple of weeks I have been the fall guy for teenagers that wait until the last minute to jump on board with driving and teenagers that believe that 17 is a ripe age of knowledge has me mad now. Plus to be honest I am feeling like what I consider to be real issues with our remodel project are treated like unimportant items. My input and comments are unwelcome and it is as though, once again I am the problem.

Perhaps I am over sensitive, but it would be nice if this mad house would accept some responsibility for the way things are playing out. I will give you the fact that I am a reactionary…that is a no brainer…however, it does take two. I just want to climb back in my bed with a magazine and my puppy princess Roxanne and have a sick day. To top it off, now I am MAD!