Bad Day, Go Away

What is "normal"? Regular? Good? Whatever it is it's something I keep telling myself I want. Please just let my children be normal. Why can't they just be normal? Well, they aren't. Or at least to everyone who comes into contact with them they aren't. To me, they are boys. They annoy the holy hell out of me but when I look at them I see them as immature little men.

Each of them has gone through the stage. People love to say "oh my kid is just going through a stage" whenever their precious baby acts like a little shit, no matter what age. But there is only one "stage" as far as I'm concerned. All the rest are transitions. The stage I'm referring to lasts from age 3-6 and it kills me every time. I'm on my third round of it and it doesn't get any easier the more times I go through it.

Characteristics: immaturity tantamount to Jack Ass meets PeeWee Herman, constant and spontaneous tantrums, sarcasm, extreme sensitivity (like, "hello, I'm on the rag for 3 straight years" sensitivity) and Diva mentality.

None of these things screams "STAR PUPIL". So when I got pulled aside by the art camp lady today it was no surprise to me. "You really should have informed us of his sensory integration issues before he came to the class" she says. Oops, my bad. Ordinarily I would have been all "I am SO sorry! You're right. I should have told you all about how incredibly fucked in the head my child is"....seriously, I've been through this shit so many times. I know the drill. Today, however...it's not a good day.

I didn't take it well and I felt ambushed. My first thought was "I super awesome love it that the teacher lady had to have her boss talk to me instead of having the balls to talk to me herself". I was mildly cordial, apologized, walked to my car and broke down. Honestly the boss lady was very nice. She wasn't upset or rude. She just caught me on one of those days. I felt like the little girl who cowers in the corner every time someone asks her name. But seriously! This shit gets old. Hearing how horrible your child is over and over and fucking over is cumbersome and frustrating as hell.

The fact is people don't like my kids. Family members don't like them. Strangers can't stand them. Teachers barely tolerate them. I can't make people like them and I can't change them. I wouldn't really want to, when I REALLY think about it. I do want them to be "normal" but I still don't know that that means. Yes, when you put them in a room of all girls in an art class they will look like the jack ass freaks. But when you put them up against other boys of their age you find them to be quite...normal.

So, should I have warned them about his issues before he came to the class??? Probably. But there's still that little flicker of hope inside me that this time, this is going to be the instance where he goes into that classroom and comes out of that stage. Hey, it's happened with the two older ones. It's only a matter of time before it happens with him. Then I'll have three down and one to go.