We have aggressively begun potty training. By all accounts this is going really well. I choose to do it old school. Strait up underwear. This morning, while waiting for the child in front of my car in line at preschool drop off decided to crawl in the back and play hide n seek with his mom. I had timed it so well, but how could I account for this? Oscar had announced he had an accident. Although, I wasn't sure if he was giving me a warning shot, or if he released his full ammo. Rather than chance it I rushed into the first public establishment I could park in front of and rushed him in. Sure enough, it wasn't a warning shot.
I almost felt obligated to purchase a coffee because we had used the restroom. I had mentioned when I rushed in that we were potty training. Before I left the woman asked me if he made it, and I sadly (and I mean that, I was sad) said no. She then decided to give me some advice. "Next time he should wear pull ups." It was then that I decided I was NOT going to buy anything from her, and if it weren't so cheesy I would have asked her if she wanted a tip. That tip would have been. " shut the F up!" Maybe it was the way I sprinted into the coffee shop holding a toddler like a football, or the emergency blinkers on my van because I parked illegally that made her think I wanted her advice. She was mistaken. Here is the deal. Pull ups just add an extra step to the process. Its just a diaper without sticky tabs. If he doesn't feel wet, then how is he going to learn?
This is following a rough morning when I discovered the reason Don has been sleeping so well is because he has been bed swapping with the Oscar. Oscar comes in to our room and Don makes his sneaky exit stage right. That leaves me with a 40 pound toddler on my head. I kind of wondered why in the middle of the night, Don never answers me when I ask him to get Oscar a drink. Now it all makes sense. When I discovered this, you can imagine I was not happy and I probably set the tone for the morning.
I have been watching Downton Abbey and I'm wondering when men stopped being gentleman. I'm not saying Don isn't a gentleman ( most of the time). But one of the reasons I like this turn of the century show, is because there is formality and dignity in everyday activities. It also made me wonder what ever happened to women acting like ladies? How can we go from Lady Grantham to Snookie? Of course, they are both fictional characters, but if the decline in the etiquette of women is a metaphor for the direction of our society, than we are already in the sewer.
I have watched almost the first two seasons in the span of 5 days, so as you can imagine, my brain is on Downton overload.
Maybe I just long for respect. Not between just men and women, but women and women. Not to mention, respect for oneself. Young girls feel that they need to wear booty shorts and sheer tops to get a guys attention, which takes away from the one thing they should be paying attention to, their mind. Which leads me to the other thing that pushed me over the threshold of annoyance this morning. I caught a glimpse of a "news" story about a woman who had lost over 150 lbs. Her family was there, she got a make over, she had a photo shoot and was given an exotic trip to celebrate her new body.
Do we forget that she got herself there in the first place and the family that was cheering her on, is probably the same family that put the food in front of her? Yet, she is getting rewarded for her hard work in taking the weight off. Trust me, I know that is not an easy feat. But do you know what else takes a lot of hard work? NOT gaining weight in the first place.
I have struggled my entire life to remain healthy and fit. Yes, I say struggle. No I have not been obese. But I have gained 40 lbs 4 different times with each pregnancy. Some may say, that isn't a lot of weight to gain during pregnancy, and you know why? Because I didn't let pregnancy become an excuse to eat a bucket of fried chicken every night. Did I want to? Of course I did, but I struggled to maintain a degree of health that would give the baby growing inside of me the best possible start. It takes determination and willpower to avoid temptations that present themselves in the form of cookies and sleep.
That isn't exciting enough though, , and I won't see a camera crew surprising me and giving me a make over for not gaining 150 pounds. But damn it, its just as hard to prevent the weight gain as it is to take it off.
All of these things were building inside me and the crescendo happened just as the woman told me that my toddler, who is the 4th child I have potty trained should be wearing a pull up.
I really really wanted to quietly drop the f bomb and get in her face and explain that she was a dumb ass. But instead I stepped back and did what a respectful women from Downton would have done. I smiled, thanked her for letting us use the bathroom and left. But instead of disgracing her name over tea, I'm taking to the modern day version of that which is my blog. If I had her name I would certainly have used it, but we weren't properly introduced. And as for the cigarette I so desperately needed, I am once again, taking the less traveled road known as self restraint, and I'm sure I won't get a congratulations for NOT smoking party either.
I'm sorry you had (unhelpful) unsolicited advise. I would like to add, however, that you can never know the struggle of losing weight like that until you are there. I would like to respectfully disagree with you. It is NOT as hard to prevent weight gain as it is to take it off.
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