Weird and Wonderful Wednesday: Sweet Redemption!

Once again I am thoroughly and unequivocally convinced that God has a sense of humor. I know this to be true because in less than 24 hours I went from being a wicked stepmother in my children's eyes to being a veritable saint. Yes, God finds the whiplash effects of the wrath I suffer and the corresponding redemption I receive extraordinarily amusing. Naturally, I was mortified while fulfilling the role of the former, harboring a vat of guilt and remorse for having committed the unthinkable: failing to remind my twins to wear crazy socks for Dr. Seuss' Fox in Socks Day at school. An atrocity, I know.

"Mom! You were supposed to MAKE US REMEMBER to wear our crazy socks today AND YOU FORGOT!!" Thing One shrieked as she barreled off the school bus on Tuesday afternoon, her tiny fists clenched almost as tightly as her jaw--unspeakably furious with me over my latest and greatest transgression as a parent.

"Yeah, Mom! You really blew it!" Thing Two echoed in kind, marching down the steps in a fit of rage.

"What-da-ya mean I forgot to make you remember? YOU helped choose the socks. YOU helped put them on your dressers so forgetting couldn't POSSIBLY happen. And the last I checked, YOU were responsible for putting on your silly socks in the morning anyway. So how's this my fault exactly?" I countered.

"You're the Mom. That's how. Moms are supposed to remember stuff like that. Everybody else's mom remembered," she groused, slathering on the guilt with uncanny precision and finesse. Ugh.

"Hey," I backpedaled a bit, trying to sound contagiously upbeat, "why can't you guys just wear them tomorrow? It'll be fun! And everyone will get to see your weird-looking socks after all!"

"Mom. This is completely horrible! Don't you understand?! I can't wear my crazy socks tomorrow! It'll be Wacky Wednesday tomorrow! Not FOX IN SOCKS DAY! That was TODAY!" Thing One wailed as I shrank in shame, mentally tallying all the Mommy points lost (thus far) in this interminable tirade-from-hell.

"Yeah, Mom, we're not allowed to wear them tomorrow," Thing Two spat. "It says so on the paper we got. Tomorrow is Wacky Wednesday and we're supposed to wear backwards shirts and stuff. Today was Fox in Socks Day," she clarified, spanking the word "Socks" with more than just a little sarcasm--which I found both remarkable and disturbing coming from one who is barely adept at tying shoes.

"Oh, come on. Rules schmules. Let's wear 'em anyway. Okay?" I suggested, praying they'd take the bait and forgive me already.

"Okay," they reluctantly conceded, "But we'll probably get in BIG trouble and that will be your fault, too."

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Oddly enough, Wednesday morning arrived and all was right with the world. The long faces and angry glares had all but disappeared, strange-looking socks had been donned and smiles were all around.

"We get to wear our shirts BAAAAACKWARDS! We get to wear our shirts BAAAAACKWARDS!" they chanted and cheered over heaping bowls of Lucky Charms, thrilled impossibly with the notion of being granted permission to do something slightly sinful, something deliciously unlawful, something completely forbidden. It had to have felt like "smoking" those sickly sweet candy cigarettes as a kid, slowly releasing each gossamer breath into the crisp winter's air (to impress the degenerates who really did smoke, of course).

"Yep! Today's Wacky Wednesday and that's certainly wacky-looking!" I chimed in adding, "Hey, wanna wear your fleecy jackets backwards, too? I'll zip you up and then when you get too warm someone at school can just unzip it for you. How's that sound?"

"Really?! CanweCanweCanwe, Mom?!" they squealed so that I thought they might spontaneously combust.

"You're the best mommy in the whole world!" they shouted and hugged me as if I had promised them each a pony (or a gargantuan sized box of Nerds).

That said, I couldn't have been more stunned or amazed by their reactions. But I was grateful, too, for having regained at least some of the Mommy points I had lost in Tuesday's ugliness.

Indeed, redemption is surely sweet.

Planet Mom: It's where I live. Visit me there at www.notesfromplanetmom.com and now at www.notesfromplanetmom.blogspot.com, too.

Copyright 2009 Melinda L. Wentzel