GRASS IS GREENER SYNDROME

Sometimes I look at things that happen and think “That never would have happened if I was still at home with the kids”. I don’t want to have The Grass is Greener Syndrome, but sometimes I watch the chaos and wonder how we made it here… In my mind we are law abiding citizens who try to be kind to others and keep our home well kept. In reality… that is not always what is happening. For example:

I called home the other day to discover the police were at my house. YES, I said the police. It appears that my daughter decided to go in her club house with our miniature schnauzer. I suppose I should clarify that the club house is nothing more than a tree. Don’t get me wrong… there is NO structure in the tree, this is just a regular old tree with branches, etc. She likes to go sit in there to get away from the world… and so she thought it would be even better if she could take her four-legged friend with her.

They enjoyed some quiet time together in the tree, and then she attempted to get out of the tree. On her way down (carrying the dog) she slipped. She was able to catch herself without a problem – but in order to do that she had to let go of the dog. The neighbor was watching as the dog seemingly was ‘thrown’ out of the tree. My daughter’s side of the story states that the dog fell a mere two feet down to the snow bank below… and since dogs are related to wolfs, this really was not an issue.

The neighbor felt otherwise and remembered back to the previous week when he saw the children putting the cat on the roof (or my kids say they were getting the cat off the roof), he felt he had seen enough cruelty and called the police to report “cruelty to animals”.

Would I have lost this much control if I wasn’t playing mom and dad all at once?

Lesson Manual: How to Be a Widow
4. Accept the fact early on that you aren't going to be as effective playing mom and dad as you were when you were just playing mom. Things will happen.