I gave up custody of my kids… I’m on STRIKE (like the government!)

Today is one of those days. The day that’s bound to come along as a mom–the day when you divorce your kids! You haven’t done that yet? Well just keep on living with them! 

Motherhood is gangsta! It’s hard. You’re up against those selfish little people you love called kids. You love them and yet oftentimes you loathe them. There’s a thin line between LOVE and LEAVE ME ALONE!

Today is the day that I am demanding RESPECT from my kids. I have SHUT DOWN – just like the government! Okay so the government shutdown isn’t a laughing matter but neither are my feelings. I’m flustered today.

I’m on strike, starting today. And no it’s not a ploy just to get my kids in check. It’s a REAL way for me to keep my mind in check and not go mental on this brood because I’ve had enough. This morning my kids saw a side of me they didn’t know existed. They got a tongue-lashing, the evil eye, a few growls and a lot of groans.

See if this was back in the day and I was the kid in question pushing and plucking my mom’s last nerve, she’d haul off and slap the black off my body without question and I’d pick my face up off the floor and know that next time I best stop bugging her and do my part and keep myself under control.

But kids these days, like mine, are a bit spoiled. They have everything at their fingertips and their momma at their feet. — Or so they thought!

I do my best not to go ballistic most days and keep it together. And I don’t slap or beat my kids as an answer to making any situation better. I’m a screamer. I admit it and I’m working on it. But today was NOT a good day.

In order to make things between between my kids and myself better I’ve decided to go MIA for a week. No I won’t move out or take a trip away, even though I’d love to go. For the next week I am totally going to be a guest in our home and not their mom. Listen moms need a time out too!

I discussed it with my husband and he agreed that he will handle the kids and ALL their needs. That means they can’t talk to me. Nope. I’m not here. If they want anything they have to ask their dad. If they have a problem or an issue they better holla at that brotha because mom is taking a much-needed break! I’m not addressing a thing. In fact I am considering asking my husband to get off work to pick them up early. I’m dead serious about this.

I have older kids and I’m out of the baby stage with my kids. And I’m a real stickler about my kids being able to do things on their own. So when they don’t, meaning when the older two kids, Mikaela and Kaitlin, gets lazy and leave their room messy, or their bathroom dirty, or don’t tend to their household chores like simply loading the dishwasher and I have to remind them a million times; or when Kaitlin leaves an expensive leather jacket AT SCHOOL and constantly leaves the house each morning with no jacket and she’s cold because she doesn’t want to tell me she lost her jacket and I have to go and find it in the lost and found at her school, it’s enough to cause me to bust a blood vessel.

Or when Mikaela takes 4 hours to do her homework, it makes me want to throw her books out the window.(I had to follow up and ask her teacher why it was taking her so long to do homework and found out Mikaela wasn’t doing her classwork and it in turn has become homework! Lord help me). How about my mornings when it takes hours for Mikaela to get dressed because she’s sitting in my face being nosey and I have to shoo her constantly to get her dressed or when I have to deal with my kids and their hair and that’s a whole other story and fight about which hairstyles they want or don’t want and they don’t know any better but want to fight with me about it and meanwhile their hair looks a hot-ass mess! And this morning? Kaitlin slathered grease and water all in her effin hair as we were about to walk about the door with no time for me to fix that bird’s nest on her head. I was so mad I made her go to school like that.

I can’t take it another day!

Yes I’m the mom who usually has it all together, but then eventually you get to a point where you break-down and call bullshit and it all comes to a screeching halt!

Today is that day.

I have done a hell of a job keeping this family running smoothly. But I am ONE woman. I can’t say I am a one woman show because I have to give my husband the credit he deserves because he tries hard. He cooks. He cleans. He does laundry without me asking. But the dude is just naturally a low-key laid back person and nothing gets under his skin.

He doesn’t know the kids rooms are not cleaned right. It looks okay to him. He’s a MAN! He doesn’t know the fights I have with the girls hair. He’d let them look like whatever because he’s a MAN. He doesn’t know any better! And he and our kids are spoiled!

They are used to SUPERMOM (me) doing and handling everything with ease. It’s just who I am. But dammit, I’m not superwoman or supermom! I know that there is a woman on this blog with a cape on, but it is symbolic on the fact that people expect women to do it all without help from anyone. I believe that each child should contribute to success of the home and my name is not Florence or Alice and I EXPECT my kids to contribute and do their part or suffer deal with the backlash of mommy taking a BIG OLE’ BREAK!

I’ll keep you posted on how my strike goes. I’m dead serious about this strike. No cooking. No cleaning. No Roger, No ReRun. No Rent. (Somebody out there will get that old What’s Happening reference.) I’m DONE!