leave him/her/me alone

Ahhhhhhhhh.

As the steamy water washed over me, I received my daily reminder of why I'm a shower-in-the-morning kind of gal. Some folks have coffee, I guess, but my morning wake-up is in the shower form. With all three kids chowing down on breakfast, I went about my shower business at a leisurely pace, enjoying the uninterrupted sounds of NPR floating my way from my alarm clock radio sitting on the bathroom floor.


Ahhhhhhhhh.

The slow but forceful stomping up the stairs was my first alert- like a warning light for an imminent meltdown. Closing my eyes did nothing to stop it, and soon enough, the door was being pushed open, violently breaking my shower-time reverie. 


"Mommmmyyyy! JAM is being angry at us."


Armed with the advice to just sit at his table, eat his breakfast and ignore the can't-believe-he's-not-a-teenager-yet older brother's morning grumpiness, Pudge took his leave and I returned to the tasks at hand.

Louder and quicker stomping brought about round two. This time it was JAM coming to complain about the younger ones' apparent taunting of him. I took the toothbrush out of my mouth (hey, I like to multitask!), and I doled out the same advice, minus about 200% of the patience, closing with the classic Mama-ism: "Can't I take a shower without the three of you falling apart?!"

If I were a gambling woman, I would have placed all my chips on the bet that the final clown from the mix would be arriving soon. I would have won big.

"Mommmmmyyyyy! JAM is being mean to us, telling us "ewww ewww ewww" and he grabbed Pudge's hand, too!"


Oh for the love of all that his holy. What is left to say? "Go downstairs, sit in your chair, eat your food and everyone leave everyone else alone!"

I want to say that when I'm available to do so, as in not in the shower, I try to get the children to work through whatever conflict they might be having, as silly as it may be. Use your words. Tell him what you want him to stop doing. All that jazz.

But when I'm just trying to bask in the glow of my morning steamy shower? I don't think so. I feel guilty even saying those words, "Just leave him alone." Has it truly come to this- sending them to their respective corners? It seems that it has, at least sometimes.


Wanting to be left alone more than I should admit,