Lovely day, sour ending

Some weekend days are nonstop chore-a-thons. Can't be helped with 2 working parents, and 2 kids with active social lives. Between getting everyone up and out of the house for school and work, commute times, evening scouting activities, parenting classes, meeting up with friends (kids or parents), many of the necessary activities of daily living get pushed to the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday go by in a nonstop, fast food blur of dishes, laundry, grocery shopping, haircuts, shoe shopping, post office, etc. etc. Between trying to empty the sink, fill the fridge, replace clothing that is outgrown or lost, and unearth the bed from mounds of folding, we sometimes find that Sunday evening rolls around and the boys have been glued to one electronic screen or another for the last 48 hours. The boys don't mind, but we do.

So, after dragging the boys to church this morning for Palm Sunday, we declared today as "Teddy day" and he chose to invite over some friends to play. While it worked well for a while, Barley eventually became odd man out, and I took him to play miniature golf. We had a pleasant round outdoors, and then he played arcade games for as long as I could stand. Upon our re-entry home, the other 3 boys were deep in their gaming, and Barley settled for some TV time on his own.

So, you would think that after Teddy doing things his way for a whole day, and Barley spending several hours playing in his favorite place, I would get to bask in some filial appreciation. Even a simple, "Thanks, Mom, you're the best" would have been nice. Instead, I got grumbling whining kids at bedtime, and more complaining about what they didn't get to do. The only Thank You I received was from the mom of one of the friends when she picked up her child.

I had a conversation with a co-worker recently, who is debating the merits of whether or not to become a parent. Her partner is very enthusiastic about the prospect, she is ambivalent. She asked me if I always knew I wanted children. I told her absolutely--always. She asked if there was ever a time I didn't want kids, and I candidly admitted, "Never--at least not until after I'd had them and it was too late." Some days parenting is more fun than others. Today was one of those others.