I don't have the answer so I'll just make something up!

Apod Shape Production.

Welcome back to another episode of Am I A Bad Mum Podcast. I'm actually getting quite excited to head towards the end of the year.

Like I feel like I need a bit of a break. Yeah, I don't know that.

You know, kids, you don't really get a break, Like sometimes it's even harder when they're not at school.

But yeah, I don't know.

I think the break is more the break in routine. Yeah, the break in having to rush to school, having to fill the lunchboxes, having to like remind them that they've got swimming lessons. Yeah, like I'm not doing the swimming. That has to come a point where you remember to take your swimming stuff. Why doesn't your brain say, oh, it's Wednesday. I have swimming this all.

The time, And even with teenagers, wage it doesn't change. It's like, why do I have to be your pa and my own?

Yeah, I don't get it. I'm trying to like encourage Gracie to, like, especially for this last term, to try and take everything on herself. You know, like you're going into high school next year. You have to somewhat find maybe like a diary or like a Monday to Friday. What have I got on this week because I'm sure that the same emails are not as entailed of their movements. Do I still get emails in a high school that tell me when their assessment is due and stuff like that.

Oh, not their assessments. I'm worried about that.

I'm you're worried about that stuff.

Yeah, But what you'll find is that they'll drum it into them pretty soon. You know, you need to be organized, and they might give them a planner or something like that, but they'll have to work it out, and they'll also remind them in class. But what they'll also say is, you know, this is what we expect of you now.

Yeah.

And what you'll find is she'll do it because it's someone else telling her.

It's not you.

If it was you telling her, she'd be like, fuck what mom say? She's still going to be across it all if you make it obvious, like I'm not gonna know about this stuff, you just have to wake it up.

That's what I was worried about. I was like, how did you forget it was Wednesday? I know it's Wednesday because I got to get up and go to work. You got up and when it's Wednesday. Oh, it doesn't matter about swimming, just pack your bag. Pack your bag that she goes. Why can't you have reminded me the night before.

Because you're the PA, you're the diary.

Oh yes, I had nothing even to come back with on that note. I was just like, and then, you know, you beat yourself up, as you do being a mom. You go, maybe I should have just packed her bag the night before. Would have been so much easier. She wouldn't have had all of that mess around, she wouldn't have had to come home.

And the problem is is that, yes, it is easier for you to just do that or remind her or pack the bag or whatever, like it's that's super easy.

That takes you like two seconds.

Yeah, However, all you're doing is extending they're not needed to know anything about what today is gonna entail.

Just to top that off, just to make it so that I'm not the only one that's in it. One of the mom's got to fit stop the other morning. It's a seven o'clock class, so most of them bring the kids. They sit like in the krash area. By the time we're finishing, they just walk to school. Anyway, She rocks up and she's in a mood right, And I was like, oh, everything okay, And she's like, how do you walk out of the house with your shoes on?

Oh.

It's like it's mind blowing, mind blowing.

That is like have you ever forgotten to put your shoes on? When you know?

I looked at him, I said, but how come all of us can come to the gym and know that we have to put our shoes on to come to the gym. It's as simple as that. And he just looked at me. It was just like shrugging. And mind you, he's the same age as else, so he's.

Just like doesn't care, be quite right, big fuss. Shoes are overrated?

When he was leaving, I was like, enjoyed the day at school with those shoes on. Am I a bad mum for not having a comeback?

Or you didn't think of one quick enough?

No, No, I didn't know. So this moment, maybe I'd had a really long day, but I was like kind of just feeling like dumbed down a bit and was just like I can't even fight, just can't even fight, couldn't even come up with a comeback. It had like moments of flashback to my own school days where we used to do it all the time as kids, but here I am as an adult saying don't do that

Just see me with drawing all over me.

I just said, you can't anyway. I went down the line. If you can't, it's poisonous, it's bad for you, it's bad for your skin. She goes, well, you can't talk. She goes, you've got tattoos. Oh yeah, I said, excuse me. She goes, that's ink.

If it's not pen ink, I don't even know what that's made of, what chat.

Is made of that? So I just sat there, Well, I don't know the answer mind you like, I've only got the very fine line and you like they're not sleeves, like everything can be hidden.

But the ink is injected under your skin, whereas she's only drawing over it. So I mean, the argument would be that hers is better for her.

So there I find myself in this situation not having it come back. Also, as I'm standing there talking to her, just kind of like almost trying to fight my point of the story, but not really having any backing. I'm like, find myself, start to like turn my arm so that you can't see anything. It was like, that is so disrespectful of you. I have an adult like obviously, which kid was it?

Elsie?

Yeah, of course. And she's standing there and she's like, yeah, well you can't talk. You've got them all over you, all over me. I was like, I don't have them all over me. And I said, do you see me.

Drawing all over my haven't you?

No, I've got like onto but they're tiny, tiny, They're all fine line sort of tiny. Anyway, the whole point of this is is that when you get bailed by your child that you have no comeback. It feels so awkward, so awkward.

Also, let's just have a like little think for a moment of the stuff that kids do that makes no sense. You've sat there and you've drawn all over your leg. I remember having a conversation and this is one of those things that you think you're never going to say as a human being. I remember saying to my girls, and they must have been about two or three maybe, and I was like, gosh, stop drawing on your sandwiches. I never thought I would ever say those words, stop drawing on your sandwiches.

Stop drawing on sandwiches, someone said to me the other day. They said like, very similar, but they had to say stop drawing with your shit because they've taken nappy off and had started drawing with it all over the wall. And I was like, I can happily say that I never well, I never had.

That coloring crayons on the walls, which is very frustrating, but that's the totally other thing.

And yeah, you're right, I never had that with my girls.

I've heard so many stories about babies that get to the point where they can take off their nap and they're like, oh, yeah.

Mum told me to go to sleep, and so instead I'm going to shit in my nappy and then write with it on the wall. And she's got.

Twins, Oh god, learning from each other.

Oh my gosh. I was like, I wouldn't have coaked my nephew and my niece both different times where my mother Nanadee was babysitting them using my porter cot. They both did it at my house in my portercot and I looked at Mom and I was like, nah, nanad they're on your watch. I ain't helpful with that shit. Like literally, I was like, what is with these kids? To talk about the grandparent ererupt she was a firecracker that day. Happened twice over the time, and then after

Just throw it out, because it doesn't matter how hard you clean that, ye know, even when like when you do nappies and stuff and you get some on your finger, the amount of times you wash your head and the smell doesn't come out.

I genuinely when talking to other people that are going through the toddler stages and they're talking about this so passionately, and they're just like, I didn't know what to do. And you're like, oh man, you're in the trenches, like right now, that kind of stuff. Yeah, we've all been through it, but that is like trench's material. She's like, I didn't know what to do. I said, well, what

Oh my gosh, a hard one. It is, so where did you get to with the stop?

Nothing had legway, then ninety seconds wouldn't have worked. Nothing, I had nothing. I was speechless. I was like, look down. I sort of covered them back up and was like, I've been defeated by my nine year old. And I was like, this is bullshit. You're just coloring in on your skin in your head. You walk away. You've got about fifty comebacks, but at that particular point on that day, I had nothing.

It's not what you need to do in that situation is you need to take some time out right down those comebacks and then go back to them and go, hey, just by the way, that conversation that we had yesterday that you don't remember or care about anymore, well, I've got this to say now. The reason I've got tattoos is because blah blah blah blah blah, your ink is so much worse for you. I've done the research, I've looked at Google.

I don't even know if it is or it is it. And I was just like, I remember someone saying that to me I'll just go with that. You know, like someone teld me, don't we in the skin?

It's really bad for you.

And it's like poison in your skin. You're not thinking about that way laying they're getting your tattoo. What about the people that are covered in tattoos, Like literally I saw someone the other day, literally their whole head had been tattooed. Oh, I just need And then I'm worried about my kid getting a text and.

Yeah, but then let's have a look at how bad hair dye is for us.

Oh, we don't need to go down much to