Grateful to be Crabby

(before you read the post, please note that the teenager pictured here has never once, not a single time, in the past 17 months since he moved in, made me crabby).


I was crabby for a while yesterday and it hit me that I was crabby like a normal mom is crabby and I'm almost grateful to be crabby. Because crabby beats traumatized, super-stressed, nearly-out-of-control angry, paranoid, or in a state of panic.

I was crabby simply because I have 4 of my 9 children at home who absolutely refuse to do things the easy way and will not be cooperative. Getting them to obey simple guidelines and rules and to do their dishes once a week or their daily chores requires so much energy. And I was just annoyed by their lack of gratitude and their laziness and their refusal to cooperate.

And then it hit me -- I am crabby for the exact same reasons that "normal" parents are crabby. I have daughters who are unorganized and can't plan well. I have sons who pee on the seat. I have kids who spend too much time in front of electronic devices. I am tired of chips in the couch.....

NORMAL STUFF.

When I remember the days a few years ago of arrests, and court hearings, and mental hospitalizations, and residential treatment, and restraining orders, and CHIPS petitions, it is actually fun to simply be annoyed by what everyone else is annoyed by.

And don't think I don't know that tomorrow something could happen to take us right back into that stress-induced hell-like fog that some of my friends are going through right now, but for today I'm simply a mom of lazy, ungrateful, unorganized teenagers... a lot of them, yes, but all of them being typical.

And I also must mention that 5 of my 9 kids at home are actually helpful and easy to parent, delightful, psychologically healthy (for the most part) and pleasant. That's higher than 50%.

For those of you blogging who are having hard times, my thoughts and prayers are with you. And remember -- there are good times ahead. Four or five years ago I couldn't see that there was hope that it would ever be any better. But whatever you're going through, it will pass.

And maybe you'll join me in the glorious land of crabby someday --simply being annoyed by your kids for the same reasons the rest of the world is annoyed with their kids -- and for nothing else.