For once I’m going to talk about a positive family experience. So, to all you finger pointers who think my soul is dead inside, here’s proof that I can be an awesome mother.

I’d been schlepping back and forth between our house and two different middle schools one morning accommodating both band and orchestra performances by my twins. Somewhere along the way, all communication broke down and I actually “lost” one of my seventh graders for twenty minutes. [She’d ridden a bus back to her school with a dead cell phone while I waited for her in the other school’s parking lot.] Suffice it to say, after hauling tail across town to get her home and then turning immediately around to retrieve her brother, I was a tad bit annoyed.  Added to my frustration was that I had only ten minutes to get him to Tae Kwon Do. A fairly standard Saturday morning, true, but nevertheless aggravating.

So when my son hopped into the car and said, “Let’s skip TKD, and do something just the two of us,” my immediate reaction was “No! We have to stick to the schedule!” Then he reminded me that for Christmas I’d given him a certificate for a “Day Out with Mom”, and I realized he had me.

I called my husband to tell him I was taking the rest of the afternoon off, and then headed for the nearest bowling alley. “Hurricane” Andrew beat me squarely in two rounds of pins, even though the first win was only because a glitch in the stupid computer scored him a strike on his tenth frame. (He found that hilarious, of course.) Then we enjoyed a wonderfully fatty meal at Steak-n-Shake while we colored the children’s menu and built a paper race car. Three solid hours of one-on-one time with my youngest son, a soon-to-be teenager. When will that ever happen again?

I hope soon, actually. It’s amazing how different children are when they aren’t competing with siblings. Andrew was funny, sweet, engaging . . . attributes I don’t get to see very often amidst a busy household with an obnoxious fifteen-year-old and fourth-grade drama queen. He kept asking, “What do you want to do, Mom?” even though it was totally his day to plan. As we headed home, I made a mental note to keep “Day Out with Parent” as an annual stocking stuffer.

The aforementioned obnoxious fifteen-year-old has yet to cash his certificate, and I’ve heard mention of “skeet shooting”. I say, bring it on. This awesome mom can’t wait.

Peace out.