Struggle with change? Ya, right!

I had a supervisor at work awhile back, who'd never ventured into the world of motherhood herself, tell me in my evaluation that she thought I struggled with change and that I didn't like it when my plan didn't go exactly the way I wanted it to.

As I heard her say the words to me, I struggled alright, struggled to hold back my laughter. Not know how to handle changes in my plans? Hmmm???

I wonder if she knew that day that I "planned" to get up leisurely at the sound of my alarm, enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee and read the paper, but instead got up the frantic sound of my daughter panicking that she'd forgotten that she had early morning volleyball practice and we had only 20 minutes to get her there.

I wonder if she knew that I'd planned to make a nice home-cooked meal the night before but sat in an orthodontist office for an extra two hours for an appointment that was "supposed" to take 30 minutes.

That is the life of a mom. Changed plans! I can make plans till I'm blue in the face but 90 percent of the time they get altered in some form or fashion, and if I freaked out every time that my plans change, I'd have been locked up years ago. A new mom learns that right off that bat, that "plans" are not made so much by the parent but by the child.

I don't know how many times I tried my darndest to arrange my baby's naps for the day so we could attend a special function or even just go out for dinner without them getting tired and fussy, only to have it backfire on me and the evening being completely miserable. Or how many times I planned to get all this housework done while my babies were napping and then they'd only sleep 20 minutes.

I think back to all the holidays I had "all planned" out only to have my 2-year-old get the stomach flu or the 4-year-old get pink eye. Never failed for the holidays or anytime we planned to travel, one girl was sick either on the way there or right after we got there. There were birthday parties, field trips and playdates all planned out but changed when a one of girls would wind up sick or sometimes it was even me that got sick. That's just the way it goes.

These days, I "plan" on simply dropping the girls off at school and seeing them again after school but more times than not, I'm seeing them again mid-day to drop off all their "forgottens." I forgot my P.E. clothes. I forgot my worksheet for math. Can you bring me a water bottle for practice? Can you bring me lunch money? Did I plan on using my lunch hour to run all over town, back and forth to schools? No.

Also, new these days, is my plan for what I'm wearing. I might plan to wear a certain sweater but find it wadded up in the bottom of the laundry reeking of popcorn or I planned to wear that brown jacket but find out it was left at my daughter's friend's house. I planned to watch my favorite TV show I taped the week before only to find out someone deleted it and taped SpongeBob instead.

Plans!

Do I like them changed up on me? Not really. Do I expect they will be? Always! After my years of being a mom, I've learned to expect change and plan for it. Why do you think I bring half the medicine cabinet when we travel? If I get to work in the morning without a request to turn around and go back home for someone's forgottens, then I consider it a successful morning. And on the rare occasions my plans DO work out, I'm thankful! Struggle with change? Ya right!