An open letter to the taxpayers in my city

Dear fellow taxpayers,



I would like to take this opportunity to formally apologize for an incident that took place last Saturday, involving a [my husband's] parenting failure. This incident took time from our police force that would have been better spent on more important duties than unlocking our toddler from our vehicle. I am sincerely sorry. I wish I could promise that it will never happen again, but in all honesty, it very well might. I can, however, promise that our next vehicle will come equipped with Onstar.



Sincerely,


Emily



Parenting fail #7835 Kelan locks himself in my car. Again. This one is not on me. Really.

Let me just start by explaining why only a little part of this is my fault. I leave my keys in my car (well probably not anymore after this post). I do this for several reasons. Including but not limited to the following:

1) I am a very trusting person

2) If they are always in the car, I don't have to go hunting around for them.

3) If someone needs a 1996 Honda (that has no working windows, leaks oil like a sieve, shakes at stop lights or anytime the spedomoter goes over 50, and has a check engine light that's been on for six months) bad enough to steal it- then clearly, their problems are worse than mine and good riddance.

So that is the part of the situation that I take responsibility for.

I have no idea why Sean lets Kelan play around in our cars. He has locked himself in my car so often that I don't even get fazed by it. Usually we just look around for the spare key and that's that.

Last Saturday, Sean let me sleep in. When I woke up, the boys were outside. Sean was doing yard work. I remember thinking to myself, There's no way Sean would let Kelan play in the car without making sure the keys were out first. Especially since earlier in the week Kelan had run my car battery down by leaving the lights on.

I was almost finished with my coffee when Sean came in and asked me where the keys were. Kelan locked himself in. Turns out both sets were in the car. I had no words. It wasn't a hot day and Kelan wasn't distraught, so I felt no guilt taking a shower and letting Sean deal with the repercussions (police and all). By the time I was done flat ironing my hair, all was well.

Another day, another parenting fail.

Don't have much to say

But here are some random pictures of Kelan at the park this season. Happy Friday!

Decisions

So, I don't really know the rules about making major life choices in the wake of a miscarriage; I mean, I'm pretty sure that that it's [mildly?] ill-advised, but I'm OK with that. In any event, here's the deal... I'm quitting the stay at home mom gig. Well, sort of.

My goal is to transition this summer and by fall I'll either be working part time or going to school part time. It's a big decision for me, but one that's been on my mind for a long time. There are a lot of reasons I could explain in detail but here is one that has come up a lot lately... the misconception amongst my peers about my "job".

Last week Sean and I went out to a bar to meet some friends. We ran into some of his colleagues unexpectedly. After Sean introduced me, a gentleman asked "So what do you do?" I told him that I stay at home with Kelan. his reply? "Oh you're so lucky! That would be the so great!" He went on to talk about how he'd be at the park all day... he lost me somewhere after the "great" part.

My point isn't that I'm not lucky, it's just that in all honesty, this is the typical reaction I receive upon telling people that I'm a stay at home mom. At first it was endearing, I tried to explain that it's actually kind of challenging. Then somewhere along the line I just gave up and let people think that I indeed, am having the time of my life changing diapers and dragging a screaming kid out of a store after getting 1/4 of the things I went in for.

I'm pretty sure stay at home parenting is the only job that people feel comfortable telling you how easy you have it. I mean, it's like saying to a nurse, "You don't know how great you have it! If I were you, I'd just lurk around the waiting room all day watching programs on the TV and giving people shots once in awhile."

So there it is. I know it seems shallow that I think about other peoples' perception of my life, but it's really just one minor aspect of the situation. There are more- like the lack of adult conversation in the day, and the fear that creeps in constantly that Kelan isn't getting enough social interaction with his peers because god forbid he ends up like his socially awkward, neurotic mother. etc.etc.etc.

I guess there isn't much else to say. The hard part is done now that I've finally decided, now it's just a matter of sorting out the details and figuring out what I want to be when I grow up.

Wish me luck?