Life is Art

Sometimes my standards are pretty low. Like, this morning at about 10:25 AM. My standard of life was: keep fecal matter off of clothes and face (hands were out of the picture since I was changing a diaper and unfortunately you still have to use your hands for that). Five seconds later, as I tried to steady the boy and pull his pants up, even my modest boundary had to go. In case you, dear reader, are wondering how I could retain human feces on my hands or clothes let me just say that changing a shitty diaper on the shitty floor of a shitty rec center without a fucking changing table - on a 18-month old child who thrashes like a wolverine and screams like a torture victim whenver I lay him flat - is one of the worst things you get to do as a parent (so far, in my four years). If anyone needs a diagram or further exposition, email me and I'll fill you in.

But you know, I had to keep going with my day. What would I like to have done? I would like to leave my children, go home, strip down, take a hot shower, dress in PJs, crawl into bed, and cry. God, I don't even know what I'd like. It's been a while since I had it, whatever it is.

This afternoon my husband doesn't bother calling to let me know he's going to be an hour late. He calls about fifteen minutes before he's due home. While I'm cleaning Horrendous Fecal Event #3 of the day (the first being abovementioned incident; event Number Two was a delightful Hey-Why-Don't-I-Shit-In-The-Tub incident from this afternoon - by the way, shitting in a tub which was also full of newly-sanitized bath toys) - as I said, while I'm cleaning up shit just to maintain a safe household - my son finds a full pound of rice and dumps it on the floor.

But then I realize this is perfect. My husband was supposed to be home five minutes before the rice got dumped. So, I'm not going to clean it. In fact, I'm not going to go in the room at all. This wasn't the plan. Right now, I should be in the kitchen making dinner as The Boy and Babydaddy are tidying up the living room. Yeah. I'm not cleaning it up. In fact, I'm not leaving this room unless I hear breaking glass or my husband's voice when he gets here. And then I'm not speaking to him for a while, either.

Some days are just like that.

Labels: burnout, chaos, family life, Nels, random potty-mouth, shit