Guilt trip


Last night I'd just gotten off the phone with my husband. He'd made it safely to D.C. and I was heading to bed when I heard someone in the kitchen. It was Anna. "What are you doing?" I asked her---it was 11pm on a school night---she was supposed to have been in bed asleep at 9:30.

"I'm hungry," she insisted, and before I could banish her from the kitchen she added, "and besides, you didn't fix us any dinner tonight."

WHAT? Just for the record I threw a pizza on the table at 6pm. And that does count as dinner. Granted, it wasn't the "sit down together as a family dinner" we have every other night. It was still food. On the table. Dinner.

And furthermore, what were the reasons I didn't have time to make dinner yesterday? Let's think. Anna got home from school at 3:00, we got in the car and went to her eye appointment. We walked into the office and every chair was taken and people were standing to wait. Not a good sign. After 30 minutes, no one had come out of the office or had been called back---a bad sign. I went up to the desk and asked if both doctors were in. I know how it works. I was going to have to wait until at least half of all the people in the office had been seen before it would ever be Anna's turn.

It went from bad to worse when the secretary told me that one of the doctors had left the practice and so only one doctor was seeing ALL these people. UH-OH. And she said it like I was supposed to feel sorry for the doctor. Yeah, right. I asked her how long it would be. I figure if I make an appointment, I don't mind waiting 15-20 minutes. "Oh it's going to be a while, honey," she proceeded to tell me. No kidding. As politely as I could, I asked her to reschedule me. I didn't have an hour and a half to wait...so on my to-do-list today: find new eye doctor.

By now it's 4:00, Anna and I drive straight over to the doctor to get her physical for track. More fun and more waiting. But this time we didn't have an appointment so I was okay to wait. We were there until 6pm. Hence, pizza for dinner because Brian had to leave for D.C. at 6:30pm.

So, back to Anna. It's 11pm and she's hungry. As she should be, I guess she had a busy day and her mother didn't make her a home cooked meal. Poor thing, my heart bleeds for her. "GET TO BED!" I told her. All my patience was long gone...

7 comments:

Julie Ramsay said...

Pizza totally counts....but I am partial to a bowl of cereal before bed...the key is to get it before mom tells you to go to bed.

mindy said...

She definitely lacks in the stealth department...:)

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry about your day! Someone should have fixed YOU dinner!!

mindy said...

Usually it isn't a problem, and one of the kids take care of it if I'm not home. But Heather (my cook) was in Morgantown for an Orchestra rehearsal until 10pm last night, Brian was packing for a last minute trip, and Sarah and Nicholas were gone as well, so it was just a fluke. I wasn't even complaining about that---just that she accused me of NOT FIXING her dinner---The stinker! I, for one, see nothing wrong with having a bowl of cereal for dinner every now and again, but no one else in the family agrees with me:)

AM said...

I don't like pizza mom. It has too much cheese on it. It tastes like cardboard too. And I've told you that I don't like pizza a million times, so pizza doesn't count. Sure you put the pizza on the table and all, but I DON'T LIKE PIZZA!

Nancy said...

Next time just tell everyone to fend for themselves and eat a carton of ice cream!!!

Molly said...

That is awesome! My family doesn't mind though. I'll text Bob at work and say, "Bring home a $5 pizza." Of course, I can guilt him into thinking I've spent all day taking care of a little boy. At least I make sure the house is clean when he gets home. I have to look like I did something.