bad mother

a la Belgian Waffle I am making a confession today...I hate school concerts, holiday, spring fling or otherwise...and I am making a vow right now, after a total of 17 +years of parenting, that I will not attend another. There, never again...no more sitting in a stifling auditorium, or worse, a "cafetorium" (who the f*%$& came up with THAT term? sounds like a school morgue) for HOURS at a time waiting for a huge screaming bunch of kids to get their act together and sit down and shut up and play their instruments in that hesitant and embarrassed way so parents can hear...I mean really, you can't hear your own kid anyway...and if they practice at home then you most certainly and painfully know very well what they sound like. Clearly, I am suffering from holiday overload, obligation overload, expectation overload...but I just don't want to do it any more. I want to say no. So, you might say, won't your children suffer from damaged self esteem if you don't show up to every little concert performance? Well, I say, too bad...maybe a little self esteem damage would be good for them, give them further fodder for the psychiatrist when they get older, give them something concrete to point to when they are searching for a reason for their angst....their evil mother didn't go to school concerts... Thought of in those terms, I am doing my children a favor, making things easier for them when the time comes for them to sort out their psyches ;) hmmmm, I'm liking this "embracing my inner bad mother" thing...very freeing...what else can I declare that I "don't do"? Drive? that would be AWESOME...no more picking my teens up from school, band, play practice, TOP etc. with a screaming toddler in the car demanding lollipops in her particularly dictatoresque way...my mother didn't drive and no one ever questioned it, a ride from my mom was just out of the question...we took the bus. What else? Deal with anything in the afternoon? oh my, oh my...how lovely would it be to say that I am off limits from say 4-6 pm? Mom's in bed, bottom line, end of story. Ah to dream....

well, now I am ignoring my youngest while she watches tv and I am going to look at shoes online...so there! hmmmph! I am one baaad mother ;)