What is Your Limit with Your Children?

Why on earth do children feel that they have to wait until the last minute to inform their parents of something they need for school?  Especially, when it is something that takes more time than just running to the store and picking up!


Yesterday, my son comes home from school and says "Mom, I need something made for class".  I reply "What do you need and when do you need it by?"  He answers "I need something baked and uh, mmh...I need it in the morning???" (as he lowers his voice so I can barely hear him)

Momma isn't happy!

Children have such a simplified picture of life.  Wake up, go to school, come home, and enjoy life unless mom or dad ask you to do something, which of course you will need to gripe about because your 'enjoying life' has been interrupted!

Me, on the other hand, seem to always be two to three steps behind where I'm supposed to be at most times. So, when you through in a little 'surprise' on me, I get all scatter-brained.  I like to be organized.  I can roll with the flow most days, but yesterday I was already behind in my business and was diligently working to get caught up.

I tell my son to check the cupboards to see if there was something I could make for his project.  Oh, and by the way?  This is for a grade in his Advanced English course!  He finds a box of Brownies.  "Here mom, we can make these" and heads back to his X-box game.  I'm standing in the kitchen with a box of Duncan Hines Brownie mix and wondering where the 'we' came into the picture!   I lay the box on the kitchen counter so I won't forget to make these damn brownies before I go to bed, and head back to finish what I was previously doing before he dropped the bomb on me.

I'm finally finished with my day's work and I think to myself  'I believe I'm going to watch a little TV before I go to sleep' and I venture to the kitchen to refill my drink.  Damn!  There sits that box of brownies!  Shit, need to get these made.  What do I need?  Two eggs, oil, water.  Simple enough.  11 x 9 pan.  "Son?  Hey, how many kids are in your class?  How many?  I need 25-30 brownies?"  I'm looking at this pan and in my head saying there is no f'n way I'm going to get that many brownies out of this recipe!  Especially after my hubby smells them baking!

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Mix, bake, cool.  That works for me.

So, what am I doing at 5:30 this morning???  Baking cookies!  Chocolate Chunk to be exact.  I only got 16 brownies out of the pan. Okay, so I admit it...I had a few myself at around 3 am.  They just kept calling me and I couldn't resist.

It's 6:45 am, I know have 16 brownies and 32 cookies, nicely layered in a container and ready to go.  My son comes downstairs and says "Ya know mom...we needed to have our recipe written out to go with it".  As I am ready to grab the nearest weapon and beat the daylights out of my son, I reply "Son, this is a boxed brownie mix.  How do you expect me to write a recipe for a mix out of a box???"  He answers "I think it was supposed to be a home made recipe."  "Bullshit!" I say "A little late to remember that key note.  You are leaving for school in 10 minutes.  Take it or leave it" as I dig the box out of the garbage to type up a 'recipe' for the brownies.  As for the cookies?  I told him to tell them they are the same cookies that Subway sells!