Mom's monkey brain

Recently, I got the privilege to learn some very valuable relaxation techniques from a local professional, who's also a mother of three. In her presentation, she referred to the phrase "monkey brain," when your brain is thinking of 100 different things all at the same time, all cylinders firing at once, never focusing on one task at a time.

This, quite simply describes what happens to my brain a good majority of the time, but most of all, was the perfect explanation for my most recent "dumb mom" move.

A few years ago, I wrote about the time I backed my truck out of the garage but failed to remember to open the garage door, one of my proudest "mom" moves. Well, this time I topped it.

Same basic set up, truck in the garage, and same excuse, hurried, frazzled, multi-tasking, etc., but worse consequences. It was the week before Christmas and we were set to leave town that weekend for a fun, family trip to Denver. As with any busy mom at Christmas time, I had million things get done, literally a 3-page checklist and one week to pull it off.

Hubby was out of town hunting that Wednesday so I was flying solo on regular kid duty, but I was still determined to punch out some serious Christmas to-dos.

Most the day sailed by pretty successfully and I was quite proud of my organized self, until after school arrived, when the daily routine of kid shuffling and activities don't mesh real well with Christmas to-do's.

That's when the "monkey brain" sprang into action. The monkeys, who were just an hour earlier, swinging from branch to branch in perfect order and harmony, must have missed a branch or two, because all the sudden they were smacking into each other and pushing each other off branches.

That's the only excuse I can come up with for why I got in my truck, which was parked in the garage, started it up and put it in reverse, completely forgetting I left the entire back hatch wide open resting atop the frame of the garage door.

If you've never heard the sound of a giant glass window shattering, I'll say it was quite shocking. The top of the garage door frame caught the back window handle of the truck door as I stupidly rolled out backwards, causing the entire back window to oddly fold inward resulting in an instant shower of tinted glass. My monkey brain caused me to forget that, even though I had taken the groceries out of the back of the truck 10 minutes earlier, I never returned to shut the back hatch.

In that 10-minute time span, I started another load of laundry, emptied the dishwasher, signed and sealed the last of the Christmas cards, ordered a few last minute gifts, arranged some snacks for the work party and started dinner and "intended" on next, cleaning out the truck for our trip.

However, instead of cleaning out the truck, I got to sweep up lovely pieces of black glass all over the driveway, yard and garage floor for the next 45 minutes, all while bawling my head off, ashamed at what an idiot I was.

Here I thought I was gonna punch it out, get some things knocked off the to-do list, only to add 5 more things to the list, and right before we were supposed to leave town. I wondered how I could be so incredibly dumb to A. forget the hatch door was open and B. not even notice when I got in and started the truck.

It was 40 degrees outside. You think any moron would know when the whole back side of their SUV is open air.

But then, thankfully, when I thought I couldn't get any dumber, I was informed of "Monkey Brain" and taught how to get rid of it.

I'm so thankful it's not just me who suffers with "Monkey Brain" and glad to know there's help!