Good Wife vs. Good Mother

I often find it difficult to be a Good Wife and a Good Mother at the same time.  I know I am a Good Wife, but when I am, I feel like I am not giving my children the attention they need.  I also know I am a Good Mother, but Pat usually takes a back seat.  And don't get me started about being a Good Self...I know that never happens because I never put myself first.  But back to being a good wife and mother...it is hard to be both simultaneously.

Which brings me to tonight.  I chose to be a Good Wife.  Pat has been working the past two weeks at band camp and tonight was the Preview Show for the band families.  Pat had asked if I was going to come and bring the kids. I laughed.  There was no way I was taking my three children to the show.  I knew exactly how that would end up...lots of tears and most of them would be shed by me!  But I knew I needed to be a Good Wife and support my husband, so I packed the kids up and we headed to the high school.  I think Pat was excited I had changed my mind...he loves to show off the kids to his colleagues and students.  We were able to have dinner with Pat and even got to go to the band office where Leah found some pom-poms and Max and Noah found some drums.  Maybe I had been wrong in thinking the night would end badly.

We then headed out to the stadium and we chose seats all the way at the top.  I wanted to record the show and I wanted the kids to be able to see.  It was hot...the plastic stadium seats had been heated all day from the hot sun and we were all sweating before the show started.  The kids complained they were hot and bored but they didn't want to leave...they wanted to watch "daddy's band."  I started to worry how their behavior would continue.

The band actually performed the show backwards.  They performed their halftime show first, followed by the pre-game performance.  The halftime show was pretty good seeing how the students had learned it in two weeks.  And my children were mostly well behaved.  At times Noah wanted in my lap, but for the most part they were pretty good.

Then the band performed their pre-game show and that is when Rocky happened in real-life.  Max and Noah started throwing punches at each other and were tackling each other.  We were lucky that the bleachers did not have the empty space under each seat otherwise one or both would have fallen straight to the ground.  I was surprised that neither went tumbling down the stairs.  I somehow avoided a trip to the ER!  And during all of this I was trying to be the Good Wife...watching the show and recording it for Pat to see and to share with family and friends.  And while I was being the Good Wife I was definitely NOT being a Good Mother...because my boys acting out scenes from Rocky and they were tackling each other.  I can be heard in the video attempting to discipline the boys, but I was distracted by the show and my 'discipline' was not very effective.  As soon as the marching portion was finished, we quickly exited the stadium.  I felt bad for Leah who had been really good all evening, so she did stay with Pat for the remainder of the show.  I felt bad leaving early, but fortunately Pat understood why while watching the boys exchange swings and tackles coming down the stairs.

But in the end I was a Good Wife.  We made it through the important part of the show causing little embarrassment to ourselves.  And I guess I was a Good Mother, at least in my children's eyes, because I rewarded my little fighters with a trip to Flubs.