Cloudy with a Chance of Steam

This past Friday, I decided to have a special evening out with the girls since I was having Working Mom Guilt about having to leave them for a week to train our new sales representative in Minneapolis. So after they got home from school, did their chores, and changed, we loaded up in the big blue bus to head to P town for a showing of the 3-D movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs".

I swung through their food mecca - the home of the Golden Arches - for some fried cholesterol and oil with a side of caffeine - and off we raced to the theater. You would think two girls would have been thrilled with such an outing...but alas, the Diva Monster took over.

First they whined about not getting popcorn despite JUST having eaten at McDonald's. Then they whined that their 3-D glasses were too big (so I put Kate's headband over the sides of her glasses to keep them from falling off). Then they whined about whether or not the movie was EVER going to start (we only had a 15 minute wait), then Elisabeth whined because I had to move Kate in between us because she doesn't weigh enough to keep her movie seat from folding up on her and turning her into a velour enveloped pita pocket.

At this point, I was STEAMING! How dare these two girls act like entitled little divas!? I was torn between laughing myself silly at the slapstick humor of the movie and wanting to haul the girls out and make them stick their nose to a wall until all the "Whinese" language stopped flowing from their mouth. I decided to stick the movie out but the last straw came when we were leaving the theater - which was considerably more busy after the movie than before - and they started throwing a fit saying that other kids got to stay for more movies. Despite my explanation that there were multiple showing and kids only got to go to one showing, they were convinced they were the saddest, most deprived, most raw-end-of-the-deal kids on Planet Earth.

I had HAD it! I'm not even sure what IT is but I know I had HAD IT! I drove home with gritted teeth and sat two girls on the couch - who, thanks to their ADHD, had forgotten about why they had whined and were merrily playing with their Barbie-themed happy meals toys.

Let me tell you...we had what my old boss used to call (I supposed somewhat sacrilegiously) a "Come to Jesus" meeting where I laid into them good and proper as they sat with big bug eyes and somber expressions. I told them if they had VASTLY disappointed me, that they were very ungrateful, and they would learn to live without two of their favorite things for a week - television and bedtime snacks.

Well, they thought they could endure the punishment until their cousins came over on Saturday night and later in the evening, they all wanted to watch a movie. Only Elisabeth and Kate couldn't. Oh, how the tears flowed...but hopefully lessons were being learned.

I know what I see from having kids is a picture of me in my relationship with God. Not to wax philosophical here but I know He has given me so much and yet I often only see what I DON'T have...much like my two little entitled divas. So we'll see if we can all break free of the ME monster soon! (Enjoy the video link below)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QvSoRQrVJg