The Things Moms Do
So this morning as I was eating a “burned” pancake I started thinking about the strange things I do as a mom. By “burned” I mean a darker brown, not really burned to be inedible but with some color on it! You know, just enough that the Big One especially would turn her nose up and say, “YUCKY!”
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Instead of dealing with the whining about the brown parts, I just ate them and my girls never even knew I burned ‘em. (In defense of my cooking, the only reason it was semi-burned was because the Big One would not get out of bed. I poured the batter on the griddle and went to rouse her for school. Silly me, assumed that the fabulous aroma of chocolate chip pancakes would be enough to get sleeping beauty out of bed. Not so much today. So after some prodding, tickling and turning the light on, she finally got up. Lord help me when she is a teenager! So technically she should have been the one to eat them!)
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Anyway, it got me thinking about something else that happened recently that was kind of an “aha” moment. It was Sunday at church. Someone gave the Little One some SweeTarts Valentine’s candy. She wanted one, so I told her she could have one, knowing full well that she doesn’t like them.
No sooner had she put it in her mouth, she pulled it out all slobbery and gross and said, “Here, I don’t wike it.” Normally I would instinctively put my hand out and accept whatever grossness she pulled out of her mouth. But this time I said, “No, you go put it in the trash.”
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My fab-friend Karen was there and it got us talking about the strange thing we do as moms; The highlight being trying to “catch” the puke when one of our kids gets sick. I’ve talked about this before, you can read it here. https://fixitmommy.com/2008/12/22/a-great-catch/
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We still didn’t come up with a definitive answer for why we accept gross things from our kids in our hands.
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Like Karen pointed out when I wrote about this before, it’s similar to the “mom arm” that magically extends at least 12 feet across your chest whenever the brakes are applied in a vehicle.
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I guess it’s just part of being a mom.
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What strange things do you instinctively do?
fixitmommy.com 
Stopping over from SITS! My mom always put her arm out when she stopped suddenly in the car as to protect me from flying out the window even though we were wearing seatbealts. I think I have done that many times too!
I have to tell you the stopping puke thing saved us a lot of hassle this weekend! My in-laws took us out to dinner and at the end of the meal my middle one started to act “off.” He was laying in my lap when he all of a sudden gave me a look. Mom instinct kicked in and I grabbed the thick cloth napkins and covered his mouth. He stopped for a minute and then got the look again and my husband handed me some more napkins. This saved not only my lap from being covered in puke, but the table and the floor. Did I mention I also had the baby in my lap at this time? I can honestly say I was proud of myself as we left the restaurant without anyone but the waiter knowing what had happened!
Smelling your kids’ butt to make sure its not THEIR diaper!
Picking their nose.
Wiping their butt when you hear “mom, i’m done!”…..all without flinching.
Ok, so apparently I’m the weird one… I have never, nor really ever want to, attempt to catch puke. That’s just plain nasty. But I also had a REAL issue with infant spit-up, and most people think that’s no big deal. I always found it nasty and frankly, to a breastfeeding mom, a down right insult. I worked hard to make that, damn it! So, I guess I’m the weird one. Perhaps I puked way too much as a kid (carsick… got to the point where my parents had to drive on every girl scout trip to the mountains because no one else would take me…)