I have not had a good weekend. I have spent the entire time ferrying my children around from one activity to another. Which I know lots of people around the world will have done too, but it is definitely harder when there’s only one of you to do the ferrying. Yesterday my 7 year old son had a football tournament. Today my 15 year old son had a football tournament. They have all had parties to go to AND I HAVEN’T. I stayed in both Friday AND Saturday night and now I’m miserable. My daughter is completely stressed because of a cocktail of hormones and pre-exam nerves coursing through her veins and I’m going to have to test her on her Mandarin revision in a minute when I haven’t got an f*cking clue what she’s talking about. Although, I suspect she doesn’t either, as the other day, on an escalator she said to me “I can understand every word those people in front of us are saying” and I said, “that’s strange because they’re talking Cantonese, not Mandarin”. “Oh”. She said.
Whilst teenage son played in his tournament I wandered around a local fun fair with with my 7 year old and a friend of his. If there is anything that is guaranteed to put me in a bad mood within seconds, it’s a fun fair. Everything is ridiculously expensive and looks as if it’s about to either blow up or collapse (this applies both to the machinery and the people that run/own the rides). I spent all my money on crap within minutes and then nearly cried a) because everybody else there had a partner and was having fun and b) because my son couldn’t work his dodgem car properly and had put his seatbelt on wrongly and consequently every time he got bumped into he got a burn mark on his neck and I could see that he was hating it and trying not to cry and it took all my willpower not to run on and save him (getting crushed to death or breaking both my legs in the process).
I’ve had boxes to unpack, rooms to tidy, a garden to rescue, a shed load of stuff to go to the dump, a large bit of furniture to move, pictures to hang, children who refuse to do their homework or go to bed on time (because they’re already obsessed with Big Brother), a daughter who refused to do her rowing today (because she wanted to revise) and an irate ex-husband texting me to tell me she had to go, (from a cricket pitch somewhere) AND it all felt a little bit too much – I want to have a man around to do all those horrible jobs AND I WANT TO HAVE A BBQ tonight but I NEED A MAN TO DO THAT TOO.
Bollocks.
It’s not fair – everybody else has got somebody who loves them except me.
ps: I do appreciate the ridiculousness of the above statement. BUT I’M HAVING A FEELING SORRY FOR MYSELF MOMENT AND I’M ALLOWED TO SAY STUPID THINGS LIKE THAT and I fully appreciate that I’m clearly not going to find a man to love me if all I’m wanting him to do for me are loads of crappy jobs.
Dumdad
June 8, 2008“But apart from that how was the play Mrs Lincoln?”
Sorry to hear you’ve had a shitty weekend. Hey, but maybe next weekend will be great?!
And remember tomorrow’s another day! (It just happens to be Monday but you can’t win all the time).
Janelle
June 8, 2008oh SO allowed! kabisa! as one would say here…my kids and friends forced me at almost gun point to take them to the Karibu Trade Fair today. I also hate them. dust. plastic white chairs. hot dogs in stale bread. and spending reams of paper money on crap….oooergh. and husband on safari.of course. lots love lulu and hang in there. you do a FINE job. for sure. xx janelle
Expatmum
June 8, 2008Aah pet! (Actually that last line was really funny.) I could tell you that I’m having to call in an electrician next week to do all the jobs that the Ball & Chain can’t even attempt, but I know that’s not what you want to hear. I hope this week gets a bit better.
Frankofile
June 9, 2008I’ve just read a Dilbert cartoon on the back page of ‘Computing’ journal:
‘I’m not attracted to you, but I’d like to date you for one month. That should be long enough to resolve any tech support issues on my home computer, cell phone and home theater.’
‘Would there be any kissing?’
‘What kind of girl do you think I am?’
family affairs
June 10, 2008Thanks everybody for your words of support – am feeling better now x