Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Reasons Why I’m a Bad Mom

I scratched Kirk’s nose this morning. Of course, he didn’t notice at all, but every time I looked over at him I felt sick about it. I’m so glad that his medicine is nearly at an end so I won’t have to struggle with him about it anymore (until the next time). I’ve nicked his nose before; my nails just grow long! I don’t do it on purpose! Well, as K reminded me this morning when I dropped the boy off, if that’s the worst that I do to him, it’s really no big deal.

I am still just not prepared for winter. We’ve been slowly collecting some long-sleeved shirts for Kirk thanks to Mr. b picking up cute ones when he finds them on clearance. But I don’t have any warm jammies or long-sleeved onesies or a new hat or gloves. I went to put Kirk’s little hipster suit jacket on him this morning and realized it was far too light-weight for the premature dose of cold we’re having. Thank the Lords of Kobol for Diablo and Jon! They got him a bunch of size 2T clothes for his birthday and apologized for them being too big. But the lined Fall jacket is just what I put on the boy this morning! Sure the sleeves are rolled up and yeah it’s big but hey, he looks like Oasis in the 90s (minus the faux-fur on his hood) and that’s fine by me.

I hate balancing the checkbook. Despise it. I’ve been the money manager for well over 13 years now and I want to quit. I store up receipts for two weeks before I enter them into the register. I rarely even get receipts from Mr. b. I get so frustrated by the mess when I do get around to the accounting that I don’t do it for another two weeks. I just can’t break that cycle. I let us spend too much between paychecks. I don’t follow a budget. I hardly ever put money into savings. I let myself get behind on utilities so that actual creditors get paid on time. The utilities portion caught up to me this month. I let too many rolling lates pile up and now I had to make payment arrangements to avoid disconnection. Disconnection notices! What am I, 23? That’s ridiculous. We are not poor. Sure, we are usually very strapped. But we can eliminate excess. We are just so lazy and undisciplined. Netflix is not "a necessity". I could draft an official weekly meal menu before grocery shopping and only buy sale items. I could demand that Mr. b only use tip money for his smokes and booze. I could refuse to be talked in to going out to eat more than once a week. And yet I don’t do any of it. How is that a good example for the boy? Disconnection! Gah!

4 comments:

Anne C. said...

HUGS!

I'm feeling bit bummed by my inability to follow a budget myself, but I've got a portion of my paycheck going into savings that I try and pretend I don't know about. It's not building up all that fast, since I use it to save my a** when I go over budget, but at least it something.

Hope you feel better soon, sweetie!

Anonymous said...

Money stress makes everything worse. It sucks.

I love you muchly, chica.

belsum said...

Aw, you guys always cheer me up!

Smooches!

Zany Mama said...

I'm so feeling you on this post. To begin with, Zane has a scar on his nose now. I wasn't the person who scratched him, but it really doesn't matter as I still feel insanely guilty every time I look at my little boy's marred face.

Also, winter is coming to Columbus, too - and of course, I don't have enough long-sleeved shirts.

At times I suspect that other mothers know infinitely more than me and handle the whole parenting thing better, but then I figure that they're just not being honest. Or maybe they are, but I'm still doing the best I can.