Grumpy Moms, Friendly Moms

[caption id="attachment_748" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="A grumpy Ben--come back Ellie!!"][/caption]

So a couple of months ago, I was feeling grumpy and discontented.  It seemed as if winter would never end.  I was tired of the cold.  Tired of the gray.  Tired of me being tired of being tired.  Just tired.  Like I needed a long nap.  Not too surprisingly, I kept running into "grumpy" moms.  Moms who seemed to get so frustrated and angry with me and my parenting that it created a highly uncomfortable situation.  Moms who would yell at Ben when he was struggling through something.  I felt like the worst mom ever.  EVER.  The story I was telling myself was that I had no idea what I was doing and perhaps I should spare the rest of the world and just stay home.  I was so out of wack that even when I tried to share my experience with a good friend, she tried to get me to see how the other moms might have felt.  Leaving me feeling worse than when I had started the discussion.   

[caption id="attachment_702" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A happier photo shooting Ben."][/caption]

A few weeks later, I recovered from my grumpy mom fest and was at one of the same libraries where we had had our most recent display of craziness (yes, Cynthia, I am talking about Sun Prairie Library) .  It was starting to feel warm outside, the sun was shining.  I was feeling happy.  We were going on a trip to New York soon and my birthday was right around the corner.  Lots to be excited about.  When Ben was having challenges sharing the train cars, one of the moms told me that her son had gone

through the same exact stage and that he had grown out of it. 

How refreshing to be able to connect with another mom and feel like she was understanding what I was experiencing, rather than feeling as if I was in her judgement. 

When my sister came to visit, we were walking down the sidewalk pushing strollers.  The pedestrian coming the other way yelled out at us for using both sides of the sidewalk.  This had

[caption id="attachment_859" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="We are all amazed that Ellie is actually SMILING at the camera..."][/caption]

never ever happened in my definition, very friendly neighborhood.  But, I suspect, because my sister now resides in the south, she anticipates a certain amount of northern snobbery.  I was so surprised by the behavior of the other pedestrian.  Then, when my sister-in-law came to visit (another southerner) we almost got run down by a car as we crossed the street, which had never happened before or since.  Weird, huh?  (I will admit, perhaps I am stereotyping my southern relatives.) 

I think the main thing that I got from these experiences is that I only see around me the things I am in line with.  For example, when I am grumpy, all I see is grumpy.  When I am happy, excited, all I see is happy, excited.  That means I do not have to change the world, I only have to change my perspective to have a brighter day.