Laughing at yourself

Everyone is sick in our house. My husband has mono. Ugh! Taking care of someone with mono is exhausting, let me tell you! Between tending to him, and keeping Audrey away from him, and keeping everything sanitized, it just never ends. Audrey has a sinus infection, has been up almost all night the last 3 nights coughing, and isn't eating much because her belly hurts. And me...well I'm exhausted! And yesterday I started feeling a little under the weather myself. But I'm taking my fire cider everyday and Epsom salt baths and downing water to flush out my system like it is going out of style! And today I feel a little better.

But anyway, this post isn't really about us being sick. On Tuesday morning, I decided to boil Audrey's binky because of all the sickness in our house. Then it goes a little something like this:

Sterilizing last binky in the house.

Didn't hear the buzzer go off.

Forgot about it while reading to Audrey.

All water boiled out of the pan.

Binky melted to bottom of pan.

Whole house smelled like burnt plastic.

Audrey only uses her binky at nap time and bedtime, but when she's sick, she NEEDS it! We're going to get rid of the binky altogether very soon, so this was the last one left in the house. I knew I was in trouble. So, I told her the truth. I showed her the pan, told her Mommy made a mistake and melted it, and we threw it in the trash together. She gave me a big hug and said, "Don't be sad, Mommy. I forgive you." Then we laughed. She is sweet, but we would see later on how much she forgave me when it was time to sleep.

So this was it! We were going cold turkey no binky! Or so I thought. Nap time was non-existent, but I don't really think it was because of the binky. She is starting to not need a nap on some days anyway. Then came bedtime...

She was over-tired from not napping, not feeling well, and coughing like crazy as soon as she laid her head down. Cue the tantrum of your nightmares. " I! WANT! MY! BINKYYYYY!" There was no reasoning with her. Luckily, I found another binky in the diaper bag. She had bitten through it partially, so I really didn't want her using it and was planning on throwing it away, but I forgot. Thank God! As soon as she had it, she went right to sleep.

So finally, I'll get to my point. I could have had a meltdown about the disaster. I could have called myself a bad mom and criticized myself. At one point in my life, I probably would have. But you want to know what I did? I laughed! I told my daughter the truth and she forgave me. We laughed and I said to her, "Silly Mommy!" Too many of us are too hard on ourselves as parents. You want to do the best by your children, but sometimes the best thing is showing them that you make mistakes too. I honestly believe that laughing at things like this is the key to surviving motherhood with at least some of your sanity in tact!

And survive I will! At least until we actually do try to get rid of the binky...