After all these years, I certainly can't start telling her NOW that she was a good parent!
When I was a child, we belonged to HoityToityPool. Every day we would get in the car and be there by noon and stay all day, often ordering in dinner of pizza and staying until they kicked us out at 8:00pm. I never heard my mother complain once about the 6-8 hour days at the pool...it was just something we DID.
Now it's my turn to be the mom and I'm dragging the kids out after 2.5 hours.
The last time we had a pool membership, Prince #2 was just a year old and Prince #1 was three. The possibility of The Queen hadn't even entered in to our minds...actually, Brad was obsessing about having a third and I was so overwhelmed with two that I was avoiding sex at all costs (yes...ME!) since it seems that I get pregnant whenever Brad & I share the same towel! Thank goodness we closed down the factory or it is highly likely that I'd be wearing a maternity bathing suit right now!
But I digress.....
Yet it was easy. The boys really didn't go in any water deeper than my knees and since it was a zero-entry pool, I could keep an eye on both at the same time. And they were too young to be asking me to buy them a $4 hot dog at the snack bar.
This time around, I've got a 7-year old who can stand in the entire "family side", a 5 year old who can stand in about 80% of it (and neither of which can really swim, although #1 has less of a chance of drowning than #2, since he can dog-paddle...their swim lessons start June 30th!)and an almost-2-year-old who wants nothing but to stay in the baby pool. And they both want the $4 hot dog and get quite pissy when I pull out the peanut butter & jelly that I packed.
And I can't figure out how my mom did it....especially those years when my brother (who is 9 years younger than me) was always in the baby pool or had to be in the big pool, but held all the time.
Perhaps Mom was just hoping that I would drown (which would also mean that I would stop asking for the $2 hot dog....sounds cheaper, but it was the early 80s!) so she didn't pay much attention to me and didn't drive herself crazy trying to be in two places at once?
That must be it! I knew if I thought hard enough I could justify my continuing to call her the Meanest Mom In The World!
Latte Mommy
You are a brave woman if you took the Princes to the pool by yourself when they were 3 and 1. I have a 3-year-old and an 18-month-old, and I can't imagine taking them swimming on my own (mind you, we don't have a zero-entry pool here).
Of course, none of this has anything to do with the fact that I can't stand myself in a bathing suit. Nothing at all...
Sandy (Momisodes)
Good grief! You took them when they were 1 and 3? I only have ONE child and she's almost THREE, and I can barely stand putting her in the wading pool in our backyard 🙁 I definitely think you're doing a pretty find job yourself 😉
daisybug
You're there. You're plugged in. You're making an effort - and a solid one at that... Quit being such a damned perfectionist, Min. You are a good mom. You are doing a great job. K??